ISRO team visits Tirupathi temple with miniature model of Chandrayaan-3

Tirupathi (Andhra Pradesh): A day ahead of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, a team of ISRO scientists on Thursday visited and offered prayers at Tirupathi Venkatachalapathy Temple in Andhra Pradesh with a miniature model of Chandrayaan-3.

A team of ISRO scientists, including Scientific Secretary of ISRO Shanthanu Batwuadekar, visited the temple earlier on Thursday.

"This is Chandrayaan-3 — our mission to the moon. Our launch is scheduled tomorrow," a scientist told reporters after offering prayers at the Tirupathi temple. National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL) Director Amit Kumar Patra, Project Director of Chandrayaan-3, Veeramuthu Vel, Associate Project Director of Chandrayaan-3, Kalpana Kalahasti and other senior ISRO scientists were also among the team seeking divine blessings at the temple ahead of the big-ticket launch on Friday.

ISRO had earlier announced that Chandrayaan-3 will be launched on July 14, at 2:35 pm IST from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar exploration mission, will make India the fourth country to land its spacecraft on the moon’s surface and demonstrate its ability for safe and soft landing on the lunar surface. The countdown for the launch will begin later on Thursday, ahead of take-off on Friday from Sriharikota.

“Mission Readiness Review is completed. The board has authorised the launch. The countdown begins tomorrow,” ISRO said in a tweet. It will be launched on a GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle. This will be Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) follow-up attempt after the Chandrayaan-2 mission faced challenges during its soft landing in 2019.

(ANI)