Over two years after its second Moon mission had a fatal end on the lunar surface, the Indian Space & Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch Chandrayaan-3 in August this year.
According to the Department of Space, the number of missions planned during 2022 (January to December 2022) are 19 — 08 Launch Vehicle Missions, 07 Spacecraft Missions and 04 Technology Demonstrator Missions.
"Based on the learnings from Chandrayaan-2 and suggestions made by the national level experts, the realisation of Chandrayaan-3 is in progress. Many related hardware and their special tests are successfully completed, and the launch is scheduled for August 2022," Union Minister for Space Dr Jitendra Singh said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
The orbiter part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission was successfully inserted into the orbit in August 2019 but the soft-landing of the Vikram lander carrying the Pragyan rover failed. The orbiter is still hovering above the lunar surface and Isro plans to use it with Chandrayaan-3 as well.
The third moon mission will make another attempt to land Vikram on the lunar surface.
A soft-landing will make India the fourth country to do so and the first country to do near the lunar South Pole.
Dr. Singh also informed that the Department of Space has planned 19 missions to be launched in 2022 as it picks up pace following successive delays.
"With the unlocking space sector reforms, the Department of Space is in the process of reviewing the future requirements of satellites based on the demand-driven model. Discussions with the ministries and probable customers are underway," the minister said.
Responding to questions over the reason behind the continuous delay of the mission, the Minister said that several ongoing missions were impacted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The list of satellites launched in the last three years' time include EOS-03 launched on August 12, 2021; Amazonia-1 launched on February 28, 2021; Satish Dhawan SAT (SDSAT) on February 28, 2021, and UNITYsat on February 28, 2021.