ISRO prepares for Chandrayaan-3

Undaunted by Chandrayaan-2's failure to make a successful soft-landing on the lunar surface two months ago, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is preparing for another attempt in November 2020.

The space agency is learnt to have set up a high-level committee chaired by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre director S Somanath, to first prepare a report. The panel is expected to finalise the report by this year-end.

Targeting a suitable launch window in November 2020, the project is expected to focus more on the Rover, lander and landing operations, to avoid last-minute issues that had led to the failure of Chandrayaan-2's lunar manoeuvres. The mistakes of the last project will be addressed.

Meanwhile, the panel of Isro scientists and academics, which looked into the space agency's communication loss with the Chandrayaan-2 Lander, has reportedly submitted its findings to the Space Commission.

Isro's calculations had gone wrong minutes before a successful touchdown on the lunar surface. It had lost all contact with the Lander, and repeated attempts to re-establish the link had failed. Although no image of the Lander has emerged so far, the space agency had ruled that the spacecraft had a hard-landing in the early hours of September 7.