Minutes before the Chandrayaan-3 launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on July 14, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s chairman S Somanath was seen watching intently, almost appearing stressed. But, “this is nothing special for ISRO—it’s like any other launch or test,” Dr K Sivan assures us. When he served as the ISRO chairman from 2018 to 2022, Sivan was in charge of the ill-fated Chandrayaan 2 mission that launched on July 22, 2019—its lander crashed when it deviated from its intended trajectory while attempting to land, on the moon on September 6. A failure analysis report submitted to ISRO attributed the crash to a software glitch.

Chandrayaan-3 will be inserted into the Lunar Transfer Trajectory after orbit raising manoeuvre. It will cover a distance of over 3,00,000 km and is expected to reach the Moon in 40 days, roughly around August 23. It is equipped with a lander, a rover and a propulsion module. Upon landing, it will operate for one lunar day, approximately 14 Earth days, and will study our satellite’s surface.