The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is likely to launch Chandrayaan-3 in early 2021 instead of the second half of 2020 as suggested by the government. This was announced by Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday, August 6.
He added that India's mission to Moon will include a rover and a lander but not an orbiter like its predecessor.
Following the hard landing of Chandrayaan-2 in September of last year, the ISRO had mentioned its plans of launching another mission to the moon by the end of 2020. However, the novel coronavirus pandemic has led to a delay in the launch of Chandrayaan-3.
At the same time, India is also gearing up for its first-ever Human Space mission Gaganyaan for which training processes and other procedures are currently underway.
Minister Jitendra Singh said, "Constraints due to the COVID pandemic led to some disruptions in the plan for Gaganyaan but efforts are going on to stick to the timeline of around 2022."