Chandrayaan-3 was successful, making India the first nation in history to land a spacecraft on the south pole of the moon.
On Wednesday, August 23, at 6:04 PM (Indian Standard Time), the Vikram lander of India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission successfully completed a soft landing on the south pole of the Moon. India has become the fourth nation to land on the Moon altogether and the first nation in the world to land a spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole thanks to the historic success of the Chandrayaan-3 space project.
We were the first nation to approach the Moon’s south pole: Project Director for #Chandrayaan3, P Veeramuthuvel
After the Vikram lander touches down on the Moon, the rover Pragyan will wait for the lunar dust to settle before advancing across the lunar surface with its back wheels, leaving the ISRO logo and the Indian flag behind. A wave of suspense that surged across the largest country in the globe since July 14 has come to a spectacular first conclusion.
In a speech to the country from the BRICS conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to India’s lunar leap as the event that rang the bell of a developed India.
“Some times in a nation’s journey wind up serving as a symbol of its eternal consciousness. This is one such instance where we overcame insurmountable obstacles to successfully navigate the lunar surface, according to Modi.
It is owned by all of humanity, he continued.
The gentle landing of the Vikram Lander on the southern pole of the Moon, which is typically dark, during the Chandrayaan-3 space mission is described as the finest moment of India’s space program to date.
Mission Chandrayaan-3:
‘India🇮🇳,
I arrived where I was going.
and you as well!
Chandrayaan 3-
Successful launch of Chandrayaan-3
landed gently on the moon.
Greetings from India!#Chandrayaan_3#Ch3
23 August 2023, ISRO (@isro)
India, the fifth largest economy in the world, exercised its space muscles in front of millions of people at home and abroad as it cemented its place among the world’s extraordinary few.
Young people from all around India packed university auditoriums to watch the amazing heights that their nation’s space program had attained.
The celebrations spread across the country, with over a billion Indians marking the momentous day with the sound of crackers, tears of joy, and sweets as the mainstay of celebration.
“This will fuel our passion for advancing space research and technology, and we eagerly anticipate the valuable insights this mission will contribute to our understanding of the lunar surface,” said Dr. Sanat K. Biswas, Assistant Professor of Space Systems Laboratory at New Delhi’s Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, where students witnessed a historical moment amidst tears of joy. IITM |
Students from Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology witnessed live the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, India’s space mission, on the surface of the moon by the Vikram Lander.
The institute was one of thousands of locations all throughout India to webcast the August 23 moon landing.
The nose cone of an Indian rocket being transported on a bicycle to a launch site in Thumba, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, in the 1970s, symbolizes the humble beginnings of India’s space odyssey. Today, the aspirations of India’s space scientists have soared into the realm of “just reaching for the stars.”
On July 14, 2023, Chandrayaan-3 was sent into orbit from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
In order to gather the necessary momentum for its journey, the expedition orbited Earth many times.
Following its successful landing on Wednesday, the rover Pragyan will spend the next two weeks exploring the lunar south pole’s surface and sending back data to Earth.