Key Highlights: India has made history by being the first country to land on the lunar surface’s South Pole, a completely unexplored part of the Moon. With this accomplishment, India joined the US, Soviet Union, and China as the only other nations to have successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon.
The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission has successfully landed after a 40-day voyage that began at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. On August 23, at 6:04 p.m. IST, the Vikram lander achieved a gentle lunar touchdown. With these remarkable successes, India has solidified its position as a major space power.
At 5.44 p.m. IST, on 23rd August, ISRO began the autonomous landing procedure. The Vikram lander had made a gentle landing on the Moon applying its inbuilt computers and logic. While mission controllers at ISTRAC kept a tight eye on it, the lander’s internal equipment handled all the hard lifting.
The smooth landing of the spacecraft’s Vikram lander occurred at 6.04 PM (IST), putting an end to the disappointment of the Chandrayaan-2 lander’s catastrophic landing four years earlier.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
— ISRO (@isro) August 24, 2023
Chandrayaan-3 ROVER:
Made in India 🇮🇳
Made for the MOON🌖!
The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander and
India took a walk on the moon !
More updates soon.#Chandrayaan_3#Ch3
Chandrayaan Mission: Phase I and Phase II
The Chandrayaan moon exploration mission was initially announced in 2003 by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. When Manmohan Singh was prime minister, Chandrayaan-1 was launched in 2008, aboard a PSLV-XL rocket and discovered water on the moon and successfully achieved its objective of crash-landing a probe on the Moon’s surface.
Chandrayaan-3 Moon Landing: Moment of celebration, praise and applaud at ISRO Centre
The Manmohan Singh government’s intentions for Chandrayaan-2 were pushed back due to Russia’s failure to provide a lander on time, therefore the project was recast to include India manufacturing the lander on its own.
In 2019 Chandrayaan-2 was finally launched, aboard an LVM3 rocket but Chandrayaan-2 was unable to perform its planned soft landing, which ISRO accomplished with Chandrayaan-3. However, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is still operational, collecting scientific data, and is expected to function for 7.5 years.
Chandrayaan-3 Exciting Moments That Made History
- Before landing, the Vikram lander successfully tilted to a horizontal position. It is currently just around 200 meters (about 656.17 ft) above the landing zone.
- Cheers in MOX/ISTRAC when the lander hovers 1 km over the ground as a fine braking period that did not occur during Chandrayaan-2.
- At 5.44 PM IST, Chandrayaan 3 reached a designated spot, triggering the Automated Landing Sequence. When the ALS command is received, the LM engages the throttleable engines for powered descent.
- The powered descent of the Chandrayaan-3 mission started.
According to ISRO chairman S.Somnath, the landing velocity was less than the intended 2 meters per second, which provides enormous potential for future missions. He stated that the following 14 days (about 2 weeks) of experiments with the instruments aboard the lander and rover will be exciting.
World’s Reaction to India’s Historic Chandrayaan-3 Moon Landing
With the mission’s success, congratulations pour in for India from across the world for its incredible achievement of reaching an unchartered territory of the South Pole and being fourth overall to reach the Moon.
Also Read|Chandrayaan-3 landing live updates: ISRO to do robotic path planning exercise for rover
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“This moment is unforgettable. It is phenomenal. It is the call of a developed India. It is the victory call for a new India,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after the successful landing.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023
The image captured by the
Landing Imager Camera
after the landing.
It shows a portion of Chandrayaan-3's landing site. Seen also is a leg and its accompanying shadow.
Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface 🙂… pic.twitter.com/xi7RVz5UvW
Russia
Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, praised the “impressive” moon landing, despite Moscow’s own Luna 25 mission crashing days earlier.“This is a big step forward in space exploration and, of course, a testament to the impressive progress made by India in the field of science and technology”
South Africa
Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa congratulated India on the historic moon landing. “This for us, as the BRICS family, is a momentous occasion and we rejoice with you. We join you in the joy of this great achievement,” Ramaphosa said, referring to the BRICS coalition of economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).
Europe
The European Space Agency’s director general, Josef Aschbacher, called the Chandrayaan-3 landing an “incredible” event.
USA
Congratulations @isro on your successful Chandrayaan-3 lunar South Pole landing! And congratulations to #India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon. We’re glad to be your partner on this mission! https://t.co/UJArS7gsTv
— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) August 23, 2023
The success of Chandrayaan-3, according to the US Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, will power people’s “imagination” in the future.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser for the US, also praised the “historic landing.”
