
On Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) integrated the Chandrayaan-3 moon mission launch vehicle LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-III ) in preparation for its July launch. ISRO tweeted that the encapsulated assembly containing Chandrayaan-3 has been mated with LVM3 at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The launch window is between July 12 and 19, with the launch most likely to take place on July 13. The mission aims to demonstrate end-to-end capability in soft landing and launching a rover on the lunar surface. The spacecraft consists of an indigenous lander module (LM), propulsion module (PM), and a rover. The lander will be able to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover, which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during its mobility. The lander and rover will also contain scientific payloads to conduct experiments on the lunar surface. The New York Times recently praised India’s ambitious space programme for its explosive growth in space-tech start-ups, noting that the country could become a counterweight to China in the connection to the final frontier.