Chandrayaan-3: 26-hour countdown begins today. Where to watch the launch

With a day left for the launch of India's lunar exploration mission Chandrayaan-3, the 26-hour countdown will begin at 1:05 pm on Thursday. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is expected to launch Chandrayaan-3 from the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota at 2:35 pm on Friday. 

According to the ISRO, the mission readiness review is completed and the launch has been authorised. The spacecraft will be launched on a GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle and if everything goes to plan, the 43.5-metre rocket will blast the spacecraft into an elliptical Earth orbit before it loops toward the moon for a scheduled landing around Aug. 23.

The mission will help the country cross new frontiers by demonstrating a soft landing on the lunar surface by its lunar module and roving on the lunar terrain. It is expected to aid ISRO’s future interplanetary missions. Additionally, the deployment of the rover and in-situ scientific experiments will scale new heights in lunar expeditions, claims the ISRO. 

Where to watch

The LVM3 M4/Chandrayaan-3 launch can be viewed live on the website of ISRO (http://isro.gov.in). It is also being streamed on the Facebook page (https://facebook.com/ISRO) and YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/watch?v=q2ueCg9bvvQ). It will also be available on the DD National from 2 pm on Friday.

Team at Tirupati

The ISRO team on Thursday visited Tirupati Venkatachalapathy Temple in Andhra Pradesh with a miniature model of Chandrayaan-3 to offer prayers. Visuals of the ISRO team went viral on Thursday morning and a Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) official confirmed their visit.

They included ISRO Scientific Secretary Shanthanu Batwuadekar and project director Veeramuthu Vel. "Yes, an ISRO team has visited Tirumala but our publicity wing did not cover their visit," a TTD official told PTI.