ISRO chief K Sivan says work on Chandrayaan-3 starts, India gets own satellite navigation

Chandrayaan-3's lander and craft cost approximately Rs 250 crore, whereas the launch cost will be around Rs 350 crore. He also said that  India now has its own satellite navigation or GPS alternative in place dubbed as Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).  

Bengaluru: The work on Chandrayaan-3 mission has started and it is going on in full speed, ISRO chief K Sivan said on January 22.

"The work on Chandrayaan-3 has started and it is going in full speed," he told reporters. Asked whether ISRO looks at a manned mission to the moon, Sivan said, "Definitely someday, but not immediately."

India now has its own satellite navigation or GPS alternative in place dubbed as Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). GPS is American, Russia has GLONASS, the European Union uses Galileo, China has BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and now India is ready to have its own NavIC tech in smartphones with the launch of three new 4G-enabled mobile processors from Qualcomm. These processors will power affordable Android phones in the country.

Earlier this month, Sivan had stated that Chandrayaan-3's configuration would be almost similar to Chandrayaan-2, but the new mission will have a rover with a propulsion module.

"In Chandrayaan-2 we had orbiter, lander and rover configuration. But the Chandrayaan-3 will be having a lander and rover with a propulsion module. The work is being carried out very smoothly," he had said.

According to Sivan, Chandrayaan-3's lander and craft cost approximately Rs 250 crore, whereas the launch cost will be around Rs 350 crore.