Image: ISRO
Chandrayaan-3
Mission Profile
| Launch date | 2023-07-14 |
|---|---|
| Launch site | Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Second Launch Pad, Sriharikota, India |
| Launch vehicle | LVM3-M4 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3) |
| Spacecraft | Vikram lander + Pragyan rover (Propulsion Module relay in lunar orbit) |
| Target | Moon |
| Type | Robotic |
| End date | 2023-09-22 |
| Recovery | Permanent on lunar surface — Statio Shiv Shakti, southern highlands |
| Landing site | 69.373°S, 32.319°E (Statio Shiv Shakti, between Manzinus C and Simpelius N — 600 km from south pole) |
| Surface stay | ~10 Earth days of active operations (23 August – 3 September 2023) |
| Cost | ₹615 crore (~US$75M) |
| Mass | 3,900 kg total stack; 1,749.86 kg Vikram (incl. rover); 26 kg Pragyan |
| Duration | 1 lunar day (~14 Earth days) of surface operations |
| Partners | ISRO (lead), URSC (spacecraft), VSSC (launch vehicle), NASA (LRA) |
| Instruments | ChaSTE (thermophysical experiment), ILSA (seismometer), RAMBHA-LP (Langmuir probe), LRA (NASA laser retroreflector), APXS (Pragyan), LIBS (Pragyan) |
Prime Contractors
Companies that built, launched, or operate this mission. Tickers link to their investor profile.
- Indian Space Research Organisation
- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
- Larsen & Toubro
Overview
Chandrayaan-3 made India the fourth country in history to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon and the first ever to land near the lunar south pole. Launched on 14 July 2023 from Sriharikota on ISRO's heavy-lift LVM3, the mission was a focused redesign following the loss of Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander in 2019. The new architecture removed the orbiter (Chandrayaan-2's orbiter is still operating and provided communications relay), strengthened landing legs, expanded propellant margins, and added vision-based hazard detection with four-engine redundancy. After a propellant-efficient lunar transfer, Vikram touched down at 69.373°S 32.319°E on 23 August 2023, just 600 km from the lunar south pole — a region of immense scientific and strategic interest because of suspected water ice in permanently shadowed craters. The 26-kg Pragyan rover deployed approximately fourteen hours later and over ten Earth days traversed roughly 101 m, returning data on lunar regolith composition and confirming the in-situ presence of sulfur via LIBS spectroscopy on 27 August. Vikram also demonstrated a 40-cm hop test on 3 September — a rehearsal for future ascent and sample-return missions. Both vehicles entered planned hibernation at lunar dusk and did not wake from the subsequent two-week night. Chandrayaan-3 cost approximately ₹615 crore (~US$75 million), one of the lowest-cost successful lunar landings in history, and the IAU formally recognized the landing site as Statio Shiv Shakti in March 2024.
Mission Objectives
Achieve a soft landing near the lunar south pole
achieved
Demonstrate redesigned Vikram lander reliability after Chandrayaan-2 failure
achieved
Deploy Pragyan rover and conduct in-situ surface chemistry
achieved
Confirm presence of sulfur and other elements at the landing site
achieved
Demonstrate a controlled hop test of Vikram as a sample-return rehearsal
achieved
Vehicle Specifications
Total launch stack
- Mass
- 3,900 kg
Propulsion Module + Vikram lander + Pragyan rover atop LVM3-M4.
Vikram lander (incl. rover)
- Mass
- 1,749.86 kg
Four-engine redundant descent stage; reinforced landing legs.
Pragyan rover
- Mass
- 26 kg
- Dimensions
- 6-wheel rocker-bogie
Solar-powered (50 W); traversed ~101 m on the surface.
Propulsion Module
- Mass
- 2,148 kg
Carrier stage; remains operational in lunar orbit as a deep-space testbed.
Vikram payloads
RAMBHA-LP (Langmuir probe), ChaSTE (thermal), ILSA (seismometer), LRA (NASA laser retroreflector).
Pragyan payloads
APXS (alpha particle X-ray) and LIBS (laser-induced breakdown spectrometer) for elemental composition.
Key Milestones
2019-09-07
Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander lost during descent — motivated Chandrayaan-3 redesign
2023-07-14
Launch on LVM3-M4 from SDSC SHAR Second Launch Pad at 09:05 UTC
2023-08-05
Lunar orbit insertion
2023-08-17
Vikram separates from Propulsion Module
2023-08-23
Vikram soft landing at Statio Shiv Shakti at 12:33 UTC
2023-08-24
Pragyan rover deploys from Vikram (~14 hours post-landing)
2023-08-27
Pragyan LIBS detects sulfur — first in-situ confirmation near south pole
2023-09-03
Vikram performs ~40 cm hop test as sample-return rehearsal
2023-09-04
Vikram and Pragyan enter hibernation at lunar dusk
2023-09-22
Reactivation attempts begin for Lunar Day 2; no response
Key Achievements
First soft landing in the lunar south polar region by any nation
Made India the 4th country to achieve a soft lunar landing (after USSR, USA, China)
First in-situ detection of sulfur near the lunar south pole via LIBS
Validated ISRO's four-engine redundant lander architecture
First Indian rover on another celestial body — Pragyan traversed ~101 m
Lowest-cost successful crewed-class lunar landing at ~US$75 million
Photo Gallery
Legacy & Significance
Chandrayaan-3 vaulted India into the planetary-landing club at a fraction of the cost of any predecessor — US$75 million versus IM-1's ~US$118 million CLPS contract. The Statio Shiv Shakti landing site, IAU-recognized in March 2024, sits 600 km from the south pole — closer than any prior lander and a deliberate dress rehearsal for the polar science zones Artemis III, Chang'e 7, and Luna 27 will target. Pragyan's LIBS sulfur detection is now cited as the first ground-truth confirmation of remote-sensing models. Operationally, ISRO's failure-mode redundancy architecture became the textbook fix for the kind of Chandrayaan-2-style late-descent attitude excursion that has killed multiple commercial landers since. Chandrayaan-3 directly enables Chandrayaan-4 (sample return, ~2027), the LUPEX joint ISRO-JAXA polar rover (~2026), and Gaganyaan-era crewed lunar ambitions in the 2030s.
