Shubhiksha GV, Pune
On August 23, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) celebrated the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon’s south pole. With this achievement, India became the first country to land on the moon’s dark side.
A live feed from the official YouTube channel of the space organisation went viral as the probe soft-landed. The spacecraft landed shortly after 6 PM, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi participating live from the BRICS summit in South Africa, watching along with the control room of ISRO. S Somnath, Chairman of ISRO, immediately informed the PM that they were successful in reaching the moon.
Sun News reported that P Veeramuthuvel, Chandrayaan-3 project director, said. “We are happy to have achieved this feat. Chandrayaan-3 was a very challenging mission, but everything ended smoothly. The rover’s function will begin in 2-3 hours.
At 8 PM, ISRO tweeted that the communication link had been established between the spacecraft’s lander and the command centre (MOX-ISTRAC) in Bengaluru, and around 9:15 PM, a picture of a portion of the landing area was sent by the Landing Imager Camera “Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface🙂” the tweet read.
Leading to the landing, various religious institutions across India prayed for the rover’s success. Notably, a Russian spacecraft, Luna-25, crashed in a similar mission on August 19.
Chandrayaan-3 was launched from the Sriharikota base of ISRO on July 14 and inserted in orbit on August 05. The mission is approximately valued at Rs. 75 crore. Its predecessor, Chandrayaan – 2, failed to land in 2019.