Chandrayaan 3 rocket’s body re-enters earth, falls in Pacific: ISRO

Bengaluru: The Chandrayaan 3 launch vehicle’s upper stage re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday as predicted in the North Pacific Ocean, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) had reportedly stated that the cryogenic upper stage of the LVM3 M4 launch vehicle, which was successfully injected into the intended orbit during the launch of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on July 14 (2023), re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere uncontrollably. The news surfaced when ISRO made the announcement yesterday in the afternoon.

“The cryogenic upper stage of the LVM3 M4 launch vehicle made an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, around 14:42 IST Wednesday,” ISRO said in a statement.

Chandrayaan 3, India’s third lunar mission, blasted off from from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14. After about a month, the Vikram lander with the Pragyan Rover successfully landed on the moon on August 23. This made India the first country in world to land near the lunar South Pole and only fourth country to have controlled lunar landing.

The lander and rover entered sleep mode after completing 10 days of lunar exploration. Meanwhile, the propulsion module is still orbiting the moon after separating from the lander