<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">India today successfully launched its third lunar exploration mission--Chandrayaan-3-- from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">With the success of the mission, Chandrayaan-3 will make India the fourth country after US, Russia and China to land its spacecraft on the surface of&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">the moon and demonstrate the country's ability for safe and soft landing of lunar surface.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The mission follows the ISRO’s (Indian Space Research Organisation) Chandrayaan-2, which failed a desired soft landing on the lunar surface nearly four years ago in September 2019.Chandrayaan-3 will journey for over a month before landing on the lunar surface later in August.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chandrayaan-3 will journey for over a month before landing on the lunar surface later in August.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The ISRO explained the three main objectives of this ₹615 crore mission -safe and soft landing on the Moon, to demonstrate the Rover roving on its&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">surface and study its environment.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The spacecraft consists of a six-wheeled lander and rover module, which is configured with payloads to provide data related to the moon's surface.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">"Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM) and a Rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">technologies required for interplanetary missions," the ISRO explained on its website about the project.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The ISRO and the former scientists associated with the space agency, including ex-chairman Madhavan Nair and scientist Nambi Narayan, expressed&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">high confidence about the success of the mission.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in France at present, also tweeted this morning, expressing optimism about the mission and said it will carry the "hopes and dreams of India."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">"14th July 2023 will always be etched in golden letters as far as India's space sector is concerned. Chandrayaan-3, our third lunar mission, will&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">embark on its journey. This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation," he added. BSS</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">bnbd24/kh</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div>