2020 will be the year of Chandrayaan-3 and Gaganyaan: Everything to know

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that it is working simultanesouly on the Chandrayaan-3 and Gaganyaan project. However, the successor to the Chandrayaan-2 might be pushed to 2021 as opposed to the earlier speculation of a 2020 launch. (File Photo: PTI)

ISRO chairman K Sivan on Wednesday said, “Government has approved Chandrayaan-3, the project is ongoing. However, the project might take 14-16 months, which could result in works being pushed to 2021,” reported PTI.

The Chandrayaan-3 is the successor to the Chandrayaan-2 mission and it will likely attempt another soft-landing on the lunar surface. Sivan said that the new mission will have a lander, rover, and a propulsion module. The ISRO website is yet to update the information regarding the functioning of Chandrayaan-3 along with the list of scientific instruments that will be carried over to the Moon on board the mission. (Image: ISRO)

The total cost of Chandrayaan-3 mission will be over Rs 600 crores, which is way lesser than the total cost of the Chandrayaan-2 mission at Rs 960 crores. Sivan said that the Chandrayaan-3 mission will cost Rs 250 crores for the lander, rover, and propulsion module, whereas the launch of the mission will cost another Rs 365 crores, making the total cost of mission equal to Rs 615 crores. (File Photo: AP)

The year 2020 is also going to be the year of Gaganyaan– India’s manned lunar mission. ISRO has already constituted an advisory committee for the Gaganyaan and four astronauts have been identified for the mission. Their training will commence in Russia from the third week of January in 2020.