Huge moment for India: Chandrayaan-3 soft-lands on Moon
India's moon mission was a roaring success as Chandrayaan-3 completed a successful soft-landing on the Moon's south pole
India broke out into celebrations as Chandrayaan-3 soft-landed on the lunar south pole at 6.04 pm on Wednesday (August 23) without any hiccups.
With this, India has joined the elite club of only three other countries — US, China, and the erstwhile Soviet Union — that have managed to soft-land on the lunar surface. More significantly, it became the first country to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth’s only natural satellite.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined in from South Africa as ISRO live-streamed the landing. The rough-braking and fine-braking phases went exactly as planned and the Lander Module touched down on the lunar south pole smoothly in the scheduled time.
Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Module, comprising the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover, arrived at the designated landing point around 5.44 pm, as ISRO had tweeted at 12.52 pm on Wednesday.
“All set to initiate the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS). Awaiting the arrival of Lander Module (LM) at the designated point, around 17:44 Hrs. IST. Upon receiving the ALS command, the LM activates the throttleable engines for powered descent. The mission operations team will keep confirming the sequential execution of commands. The live telecast of operations at MOX begins at 17:20 Hrs. IST,” ISRO’s tweet read.
“We learnt our lessons from Chandrayaan-2,” said scientist Nambi Narayan. Scientific analyst Ravikumar said six types of updates were made from Chandrayaan-2. For instance, height adjusting techniques were updated in Chandrayaan-3, explained Ravikumar.
Chandrayaan-3 was ISRO’s second attempt in four years to soft-land a craft on the lunar surface. Chandrayaan-2 failed in the attempt in the final stages in 2019.
Live Updates
- 23 Aug 2023 4:05 PM GMT
'We went through a lot of pain and agony': ISRO chief
ISRO Chairman S Somanath acknowledged the contribution of a generation of leadership by the scientists of the country's space agency for the Chandrayaan-3 mission's success and said this is an "incremental progress" and "definitely a huge one”.
The journey to the Moon is tough and soft-landing is difficult for any nation to achieve today even with the advancement of technology, he said, pointing out that India achieved it in just two missions. Chandrayaan-2, the first mission with the objective of soft landing on the Moon had a narrow miss, while the Chandrayaan-3 mission was perfectly executed.
Chandrayaan-1’s objective was only to place an unmanned spacecraft in an orbit around the Moon.
"It (success of Chandrayaan-3 mission) gives confidence to configure missions to not only go to the Moon, but also to go to Mars, sometimes (perhaps) land on Mars, may be in future go to Venus and other planets...," he said.
Undertaking the Chandrayaan-3 mission was difficult, he said. "We went through a lot of pain and agony".
- 23 Aug 2023 4:03 PM GMT
Communication link established between Chandrayaan-3 lander and MOX: ISRO
Soon after the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO said communication link was established between the Lander and the space agency's Mission Operations Complex (MOX) in Bengaluru.
The MOX is located at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC).
ISRO also released images from the Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera taken during the descent to the Moon's surface.
Chandrayaan-3 mission's Lander Module on Wednesday touched down on the surface of the Moon.
- 23 Aug 2023 2:07 PM GMT
What happens next?
2 hours after touchdown Vikram's ramp is deployed.
2 hours and 30 minutes after touchdown, Pragyan is switched ON
3 hours and 10 minutes after touchdown, Pragyan rover deploys solar panels.
3 hours and 26 minutes after touchdown, Pragyan rover roll-out begins.
3 hours and 36 minutes after touchdown, Pragyan rover touches lunar surface.
3 hours and 52 minutes after touchdown, Pragyan images Vikram
- 23 Aug 2023 1:13 PM GMT
Very happy to succeed: ISRO chief
"Chandrayaan-2 learnings helped us perfect today's achievement," ISRO chief S Somnath said while addressing the press after the successful soft-landing by Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar surface."Looking forward to an exciting 14 days (1 lunar day)," he added.
