Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday announced that Chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched during the third quarter of 2022. He also stressed that India’s lunar mission was hampered due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Singh in a written response to a question in Lok Sabha said that the launch of Chandrayaan – 3 has been rescheduled. “Chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched during third quarter of 2022 assuming normal work flow henceforth,” he said.

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He also said that the realisation of India’s lunar mission involves various processes, including finalisation of configuration, subsystems realisation, integration, spacecraft level detailed testing and a number of special tests to evaluate the system performance on earth. 

Singh added, “The realisation progress was hampered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The tasks that were possible at home were taken up during the lockdown. Chandraayan – 3 realisation resumed after the lockdown was lifted. Now the realisation is in a matured stage.

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Chandrayaan – 2 was launched on July 22, 2019. It aimed at landing a rover on the unexplored region of the Lunar South Pole onboard the country’s most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle.

On September 7, 2019, the lander Vikram hard-landed, making Chandrayan – 2 an unsuccessful attempt. 

Chandrayaan – 3 is critical for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as it will demonstrate India’s capabilities to make landings for further interplanetary missions.