The achievement overcame the August anomaly when the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) mission rendered the satellites inoperable. Somanath, also the Secretary of the Department of Space, described the mission as "historic," and credited Prime Mini

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Digital Desk: ISRO chairman Dr. S Somanath said Diwali began a day early for the space agency with the successful launch of the biggest rocket carrying 36 communication satellites. Dr. Somanath stated at the press conference that the Chandrayaan 3 is "nearly ready." "Chandrayaan-3 is nearly finished. Final integration and testing are nearly finished. Still, some more tests are pending, so we'll perform it later. There were two openings, one in February and one in June. We would prefer to schedule the launch for June 2023 "ANI reported that he said this.

All 36 satellites were sent into orbit 75 minutes after the rocket took off from the spaceport here.

The achievement overcame the August anomaly when the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) mission rendered the satellites inoperable.

Somanath, also the Secretary of the Department of Space, described the mission as "historic," and credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's backing for the project's success.

"Congratulations to the whole launch vehicle crew for seizing the chance and preparing it for the historic mission today. I'd also want to thank the OneWeb team for putting their trust in us to host the LVM3...we're hoping that the next mission of the LVM3 will do the same to deploy the other 36 satellites contracted by NSIL ", he explained.

Chandrayaan-3 was supposed to demonstrate India's capacity to land softly on a celestial body, with the rover connecting with Earth via the orbiter from Chandrayaan-2. The current orbiter is expected to last seven years.

The mission was announced months after the Vikram lander aboard Chandrayaan-2 crashed-landed on the lunar surface in September 2019, barely 2.1 kilometers from its destination.

Chandrayaan-3 was supposed to launch in late 2020 or early 2021, but it had to be postponed owing of the Covid-19 epidemic.

ISRO had completed the propulsion system for Chandrayaan-3 prior to the second wave of the epidemic in April. The lander and propulsion systems were being connected, and many tests for the middle of the year were scheduled.