What is the main task of India’s third moon mission which could not be achieved in its earlier mission? List the countries that have achieved this task. Introduce the subsystems in the spacecraft launched and explain the role of the “Virtual Launch Control Centre’ at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre which contributed to the successful launch from Sriharikota.

India has become the fourth country to successfully demonstrate soft moon landing and first country to land near the lunar South pole.

• Other countries to have achieved this are USSR(Russia) with their LUNA mission, USA under the Apollo and Artemis mission and China with their Chang’e mission.
• The main mission objective of Chandrayaan is to demonstrate soft landing near the Lunar south pole, perform roving on the lunar surface and conduct onsite scientific experiments.
• The Chandrayaan-3 payload has three subsystem modules such as Propulsion module, Lander Module and a Rover.
• The propulsion module is to propel the Lander into the right orbit around the Moon and also, it shall perform some observation of the moon for another 3 to 6 months.
• Lander Module is to perform soft moon landing near the Lunar South Pole and the Rover is deployed from the lander, both the lander and the rover shall perform various surface experiments.
• The virtual launch control centre (VLCC) at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) is technically an observational desk to remotely carry out system diagnosis or checkup of major components of the rocket before the actual launch. It extensively reduces chances of failure by ensuring proper functioning of all the components.

With the success of Chandrayaan-3 Mission, India’s future space missions like Aditya L1, Gaganyaan and Shukrayaan seems logical steps in the direction of Space exploration considering the scientific and technological progress it can bring.