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Chandrayaan programme
GSLV Mk III M1, Chandrayaan-2 Lifting off 01.jpg
LVM3 M1 lifting off with Chandrayaan-2 on 22 July 2019
Country India
Organization ISRO
Purpose Exploration of the Moon
Status Active
Program history
Cost 1,364 crore (US$230 million)
Duration 2008–present
First flight Chandrayaan-1, 22 October 2008; 16 years ago (2008-10-22)
Last flight Chandrayaan-3, 14 July 2023; 17 months ago (2023-07-14)
Launch site(s) Satish Dhawan Space Centre
Vehicle information
Launch vehicle(s)
  • PSLV
  • LVM3

The Chandrayaan programme (romanized: Candrayāna, ) also known as the Indian Lunar Exploration Program is an ongoing series of outer space missions by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for the exploration of the Moon. The program incorporates a lunar orbiter, an impactor, a soft lander and a rover spacecraft.

There have been three missions so far with a total of two orbiters, landers and rovers each. While the two orbiters were successful, the first lander and rover which were part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, crashed on the surface. The current Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the moon on 23 August 2023, making India the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar south pole region, and only the fourth country ever to land on the moon.

Programme structure

The Chandrayaan (Indian Lunar Exploration Programme) programme is a multiple mission programme. As of September 2019, one orbiter with an impactor probe has been sent to the Moon, using ISRO's workhorse PSLV rocket. The second spacecraft consisting of orbiter, soft lander and rover was launched on 22 July 2019, by using a LVM3 rocket. In a podcast from AT, VSSC director S. Somanath stated that there will be a Chandrayaan-3 and more follow up missions in Chandrayaan Program. The Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched in 14 July 2023 using LVM-3 and it is expected to reach Moon's surface in August.

Phase I: Orbiter and Impactor

Chandrayaan-1

CY1 2007 (cropped)
Diagram of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced the Chandrayaan project on course in his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2003. The mission was a major boost to India's space program. The idea of an Indian scientific mission to the Moon was first mooted in 1999 during a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Astronautical Society of India carried forward the idea in 2000. Soon after, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) set up the National Lunar Mission Task Force which concluded that ISRO has the technical expertise to carry out an Indian mission to the Moon. In April 2003 over 100 eminent Indian scientists in the fields of planetary and space sciences, Earth sciences, physics, chemistry, astronomy, astrophysics and engineering and communication sciences discussed and approved the Task Force recommendation to launch an Indian probe to the Moon. Six months later, in November, the Indian government gave the nod for the mission.

The first phase includes the launch of the first lunar orbiters.

  • Chandrayaan-1, launched on 22 October 2008 aboard a PSLV-XL rocket, was a big success for ISRO as the Moon Impact Probe, a payload on board the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, discovered water on the Moon. Apart from detecting water the Chandrayaan-1 mission performed several other tasks such as mapping and atmospheric profiling of the Moon.

Phase II: Soft landers and rovers

Chandrayaan-2
Chandrayaan-2 lander and orbiter integrated module
Orbiter and lander in stacked configuration with the rover inside the lander

On 18 September 2008, the First Manmohan Singh Cabinet approved the mission. Although ISRO finalised the payload for Chandrayaan-2 per schedule, the mission was postponed in January 2013 and rescheduled to 2016 because Russia was unable to develop the lander on time. Roscosmos later withdrew in wake of the failure of the Fobos-Grunt mission to Mars, since the technical aspects connected with the Fobos-Grunt mission were also used in the lunar projects, which needed to be reviewed. When Russia cited its inability to provide the lander even by 2015, India decided to develop the lunar mission independently and unused orbiter hardware was repurposed to be used for Mars Orbiter Mission.

Chandrayaan-2 was launched on 22 July 2019 aboard a LVM3 rocket. The spacecraft was successfully put into lunar orbit on August 20, 2019 but the lander was lost while attempting to land on 6 September 2019. The orbiter is operational, collecting scientific data, and is expected to function for 7.5 years.

Chandrayaan-3

In November 2019, ISRO officials stated that a new lunar lander mission was being studied for launch in November 2020. This new proposal is called Chandrayaan-3 and it would be a re-attempt to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission proposed in partnership with Japan for 2025. This spacecraft configuration would not include launching an orbiter and would have a lander, rover, and a propulsion module with mission costing 250 crore with additional launch costs of 365 crore for LVM3. This third mission would land in the same area as the second one. Chandrayaan-3 was launched on 14 July 2023 at 9:05:17 UTC. The primary goals of the Chandrayaan-3 mission encompass three key aspects. Firstly, it aims to showcase a successful and controlled touchdown on the lunar surface. Secondly, it intends to demonstrate the mobility of a rover on the Moon's terrain. Lastly, it seeks to carry out scientific experiments directly on the lunar surface.

The lander and rover of Chandrayaan-3 landed near the lunar south pole region on 23 August 2023.

Phase III: On site sampling

Lunar Polar Exploration Mission

The next mission will be the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission or Chandrayaan-4, suggested to be launched in a time frame of 2026-28. India is collaborating with Japan in this mission but the mission is not yet defined. It will be a lander-rover mission near lunar pole to perform on site sampling and analysis of collected lunar material and demonstrate lunar night survival technologies.

List of missions

Landing

  Successful hard landing
  Successful soft landing
  Unsuccessful landing

Mission

  Successful and inactive
  Active
  Unsuccessful

Mission
Launch Date
Launch Vehicle
Orbital Insertion Date Landing Date Return Date Status
Main
Mission
Extended
Mission
Expected Mission Duration Total Mission Duration Notes
Phase 1: Orbiter and impactor
Chandrayaan-1 22 October 2008 PSLV-XL 8 November 2008 14 November 2008 Success 2 years 310 days First Indian Lunar mission; discovered water on the Moon.
Phase 2: Soft landers and rovers
Chandrayaan-2 22 July 2019 LVM3 20 August 2019 6 September 2019 Success Ongoing 7.5 years 5 years, 3 months, 22 days elapsed First Indian Lunar lander and rover mission; lander crashed.
Chandrayaan-3 14 July 2023 5 August 2023 23 August 2023 Ongoing TBD 14 days 1 year, 4 months, 1 day elapsed First Indian lunar soft landing; humanity's first landing near lunar south pole.
Phase 3: Onsite sampling
LUPEX TBD 2026-28 H3 TBD TBD TBD TBD 6 months TBD Collaborative mission with JAXA.

Gallery

See also

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