Chandrayaan-3 was successfully launched from Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota on Friday

Chennai: India's lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 will explore the possibilities of human habitat on the Moon, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said today.

The mission has placed India as the leading global player as far as space technology is concerned, the Union Minister said.

"The outcomes are going to be at multiple levels to the benefit of India. It has placed India as the leading global player regarding space technology and the space sector," Mr Singh said.

Chandrayaan-3 was successfully launched on a GSLV MK-III (LVM-3) heavy-lift launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota at the scheduled launch time on Friday.

The journey from Earth to the Moon for the spacecraft is estimated to take about a month, with the landing expected on August 23. Upon landing, it will operate for a lunar day - approximately 14 Earth days.

Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar exploration mission, will make India the fourth country after the US, China, and Russia to land its spacecraft on the surface of the Moon and demonstrate the country's abilities for a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface.

The Chandrayaan-3 is the ISRO's follow-up attempt after the Chandrayaan-2 mission faced challenges during its soft landing on the lunar surface in 2019 and was eventually deemed to have failed its core mission objectives.

Chandrayaan-3, equipped with a lander, a rover, and a propulsion module and weighing around 3,900 kilograms, will be inserted into the Lunar Transfer Trajectory after the orbit-raising manoeuvres. Covering a distance of over 3,00,000 km, it will reach the Moon in the coming weeks.