Soft landing of Chandrayaan 3 planned at 5.47 pm on August 23

 India’s third moon mission Chandrayaan-3 will attempt the technically challenging soft landing on the lunar surface on August 23, ISRO Chairman S Somanath said on Friday.

Addressing reporters after the successful launch of the estimated Rs 600 crore mission, Somanath said the craft’s insertion into the lunar orbit has been planned from



August 1.

The soft landing was planned at 5.47 pm on August 23, more than a month after Chandrayaan 3 took off from the spaceport here piggybacking on the heavylift LVM3-M4 rocket, he added.

Elaborating, Somanath said the rocket, following Friday’s launch would be proceeding towards the lunar orbit in elliptical orbits.