Chandrayaan-3 integrated with launch vehicle LVM3

Source: The post is based on the article “Chandrayaan-3 integrated with launch vehicle LVM3” published in The Hindu on 6th July 2023

What is the News?

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced that it has successfully integrated the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft with the launch vehicle, Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3), at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

What is Chandrayaan-3?

Click Here to read

Why has Chandrayaan-3 been integrated with LVM3?

The Chandrayaan-3, which consists of a lander, rover and propulsion module, can’t travel to space on its own. 

It needs to be attached — like any satellite — to launch vehicles or rockets, like the LVM3 in this case. 

Rockets have powerful propulsion systems that generate the huge amount of energy required to lift heavy objects like satellites into space, overcoming the gravitational pull of the Earth.

What is LVM3?

LVM3 is India’s heaviest rocket with a gross lift-off weight of 640 tonnes.

It is essentially a three-stage launch vehicle, including two solid boosters (S200), the core liquid fuel-based stage (L110), and the cryogenic upper stage (C25).

It can carry up to 8 tonnes of payload to the lower earth orbits (LEO), which is about 200 km from the Earth’s surface. 

But when it comes to the geostationary transfer orbits (GTO), which lie much further ahead, up to about 35,000 km from the Earth, it can carry only about four tonnes.

LVM3 made its first journey into space in 2014 and also carried the Chandrayaan-2 in 2019. In March, 2023, it placed 36 OneWeb satellites, weighing about 6,000kg in LEO showing its capabilities to deliver multiple satellites into space.