A team of ISRO scientists on Thursday offered prayers at Tirupati Venkatachalapathy Temple in Andhra Pradesh with a miniature model of Chandrayaan-3.

ISRO chairman S Somanath also visited Sri Chengalamma Temple in Tirupati to offer prayers. “Chandrayaan-3 will start its journey tomorrow. We are hoping that everything goes right and it lands on the moon on August 23,” Somanath said after offering prayers.

The mission follows Chandrayaan-2 where scientists aim to demonstrate various capabilities including reaching the orbit of the moon, making a soft-landing on the lunar surface using a lander, and a rover coming out of the lander to study the surface of the moon.

As per the ISRO, after the lift-off at 2:35 pm on Friday, around 16 minutes after lift-off, the propulsion module is expected to get separated from the rocket and would orbit the earth for about 5-6 times in an elliptical cycle with 170 km closest and 36,500 km farthest from earth moving towards the lunar orbit.