Chandrayaan-3 likely to be launched during third quarter of 2022

India's mission to the moon Chandrayaan-3 may be launched during the third quarter of 2022 assuming normal workflow henceforth, Union Minister of State in the Department of Space Dr Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, the minister said that the realisation of Chandrayaan-3 is in progress.

"The realization of Chandrayaan-3 involves various processes including finalization of configuration, subsystems realization, integration, spacecraft level detailed testing, and a number of special tests to evaluate the system performance on earth," the minister said. He stated that the realisation progress was hampered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"However, all works that were possible in work from home mode were taken up even during lockdown periods. Chandrayaan-3 realization resumed after commencement of unlock period and is in matured stage of realization," read the reply.

The third lunar mission will have a configuration similar to Chandrayaan-2, equipped with the lander and a rover, and will land on the same location where the Vikram-lander for the previous mission crashed.

(With ANI inputs)