India Celebrates Landing on Lunar South Pole: Chandrayaan-3 Successfully Lands on the Moon
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft arrived at the Moon's surface today after a 41-day journey, realizing the dream of 140 crore Indians.
With this landing, India made history and became the fourth country to perfect the technology of soft lunar landing, following the US, China, and the former Soviet Union (now Russia). Indians and space scientists received praise for their accomplishment from PM Modi.
This current endeavor comes only days after Russia's first Moon mission in nearly 50 years tragically ended in a collision within the same lunar region, following an unsuccessful Indian lunar mission in 2019.
Back in September 2019, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi was pictured hugging and patting K Sivan, the former head of the Indian Space Research Organisation, as the scientist could not control his tears after the space agency lost contact with Chandrayaan 2 lander 'Vikram' just as its descent to the Moon was initiated. Also moved by emotion was the prime minister.
The will to fight back and rise again, though, was probably what was giving birth amid the sobs and the eerie silence in ISRO's control room.
The most recent pictures sent back by the lander gave optimism to K. Sivan, the former director of the Indian space program, and gave him hope for a successful conclusion of the mission's last phase.
India's technique entailed numerous orbits around Earth to collect speed before starting its month-long course toward the Moon, using rockets that were substantially less powerful than those used by the United States at the time.
The Chandrayaan-3 lander faced a critical moment in its quest to conduct a soft lunar landing on August 23 during a crucial technical maneuver. According to experts, the last 15 to 20 minutes of the mission, when Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander made its soft landing, were extremely important for the project's success. Nationwide and internationally, Indians are praying for Chandrayaan-3's successful landing today.
The mission's voyage to the Moon, which was launched over six weeks ago amid the applause of thousands of spectators, significantly contrasts with the quick transits of the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived at their lunar target within days.