Chandrayaan-3 likely to be launched during third quarter of 2022: Jitendra Singh

new delhi: chandrayaan-3, india's lunar mission, is likely to be launched during the quarter of 2022, union minister jitendra singh said on wednesday, stressing that its progress was hampered due to the covid-19 pandemic.       in a written response to a question in lok sabha, singh, minister of state in-charge of the department of space, said the launch of chandrayaan-3 has been rescheduled.    "chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched during third quarter of 2022 assuming normal work flow henceforth," he said.     singh added that the realisation of chandrayaan-3 involves various process, including finalisation of configuration, subsystems realisation, integration, spacecraft level detailed testing and a number of special tests to evaluate the system performance on earth.     "the realisation progress was hampered due to the covid-19 pandemic," he said.    however, all works that were possible in the work from home mode were taken up even during the lockdown periods. chandrayaan-3 realisation resumed after commencement of unlock period and is in matured stage of realisation, he said.    chandrayaan-2, aimed at landing a rover on unchartered lunar south pole, was launched on july 22, 2019 on board the country's most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle.    however, the lander vikram hard-landed on september 7, 2019, crashing india's dream to become the first nation to successfully land on the lunar surface in its maiden attempt.      chandrayaan-3 is critical for indian space research organisation (isro) as it will demonstrate india's capabilities to make landing for further interplanetary missions.