According to media reports, India’s third mission to the Moon will probably launch by the first half of 2021. This revised configuration “retains the heritage” of Chandrayan-2, stated the Union minister for the Department of Space to the Lok Sabha.

“Chandrayaan-3 mission has been configured based on the lessons learnt from Chandrayaan-2. The revised configuration takes care of the robustness in design, capacity enhancement for mission flexibility and, at the same time, retains the heritage of Chandrayaan-2 to the extent possible,” wrote Jitendra Singh.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission was a proud moment for India even though it had a tragic ending. The mission was successful till it was time to land but when Vikram approached the moon’s surface, it resulted in a crash as it was unable to slow down.

According to Business Insider, ISRO chairman K Sivan estimates that the cost of the mission will be around ₹6.15 billion rupees ($91.2 million) while the Chandrayaan-2 mission cost India ₹9.7 billion rupees ($136.1 million).