2020 will be the year of Chandrayaan-3 and Gaganyaan: ISRO chief K Sivan

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Chandrayaan-3, the third edition of India’s moon mission, has been approved by the government, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Sivan said on Wednesday. “All the activities related to Chandrayaan-3 are going on smoothly,” Sivan said at a press conference on Bengaluru on the first day of 2020.

Giving details about the mission, he said that Chandrayaan-3 will be almost similar to its predecessor Chandrayaan-2.

“We had orbiter-lander-rover configuration in Chandrayaan-2. In Chandrayaan-3, we will have landing and rover with propulsion module,” said Sivan adding, “This is going to be an eventful year for ISRO.”

He also listed the space agency’s achievements in 2019 and what it plans to do this year.

“This year is going to be the year of Chandrayaan-3 and Gaganyaan,” the ISRO chief said.

“We had good progress on Gaganyaan in 2019. The training for four astronauts has been planned in third week of January,” said Sivan. Gaganyaan is India’s first manned mission to the space. Scheduled to be launched in 2022, Gaganyaan aims to send three astronauts to space and bring them back safely.

“In 2019, our strategy was focused on expansion. We wanted to expand ISRO’s capacity for missions. So we have acquired land in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi for a second space port,” Sivan said.