By 
July 11th, 2023
India’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander/rover.
Image credit: ISRO
India’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander/rover has completed launch rehearsal by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Target for liftoff is July 14. The lunar lander is headed for the southern region of the Moon’s near side, soft landing about 13 miles (20 kilometers) west of Manzinus U crater rim, at coordinates 69.367621 S, 32.348126 E, as stated by the ISRO.
Projected touchdown: around August 23.
Image credit: Quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/projections
Neighborhood watch
India’s landing site is not too far from where Russia’s Luna-25 is targeted to land, following its launch in August.
Luna-25’s main landing site is at 69.545 S, 43.544 E, north of Boguslavsky crater. The reserve landing site is at 68.773 S and 21.21 E, southwest of Manzini (Manzinus) crater.
Ship and shoot! Russia’s Luna-25 ready for launch next month.
Image credit: JSC “NPO Lavochkina”
The center of Boguslawsky crater is roughly 93 miles (150 kilometers) south of the coordinates issued by ISRO for the prospective Chandrayaan-3 landing locale.
Topographic map of the southern sub-polar region of the Moon showing the location of Boguslawsky crater.
Credit: Ivanov et al., 2015 via Arizona State University/LROC
Everybody’s going to the Moon!
Note: Special thanks to Mark Robinson, Arizona State University’s Moon reckoning man.
Posted in Space News
