Chandrayaan-3 Successfully Lands on Moon; India Scripts History, Joins Elite Club of Achievers

Earlier in the day, special prayers were held at temples, mosques and gurudwaras for the success of mission which is crucial for ISRO’s future inter-plentary endeavours..

New Delhi: In a significant step towards its moon mission, India scripted history as Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the lunar south pole at 6.04 PM on Wednesday, propelling the country to an exclusive club of four and making it the first country to land on the uncharted surface.

Officials at India’s space agency ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru began celebrations after the Vikram began its powered vertical descent towards its landing site.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
'India🇮🇳,
I reached my destination
and you too!'
: Chandrayaan-3

Chandrayaan-3 has successfully
soft-landed on the moon 🌖!.

Congratulations, India🇮🇳!#Chandrayaan_3#Ch3

— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023

“India is on the moon!” Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is currently attending the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg said. He watched the live telecast and as soon as the touchdown happened he sported a big smile and waved the tricolour.

“India’s successful Moon mission is not just India’s alone…This success belongs to all of humanity,” said PM Modi on Chandrayaan-3 mission success.

#WATCH | "India's successful Moon mission is not just India's alone…This success belongs to all of humanity," says PM Modi on Chandrayaan-3 mission success

India is the first country to land on lunar south pole with Chandrayaan-3 mission pic.twitter.com/eVh0N7fIpv

— ANI (@ANI) August 23, 2023

The countdown of the Vikram hovered at 150 metres, then 130 metres, 50 metres and decelerated as approached the moon’s service before finally touching down on the lunar surface.

As the Vikram lander carrying the Pragyaan rover in its belly touched down on the lunar surface, it marked a giant leap in India’s spacefaring journey providing a well-deserved finale to ISRO’s long years of toil.

This makes India becomes the fourth country – after US, China, and Russia – to have successfully landed on the moon’s surface, it has earned a place in record books as the first to touchdown on the south side of Earth’s only natural satellite.

Billions of people across India and globally closely monitoring the much-awaited event. More so after Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashed on Sunday after spinning out of control.

The scheduled timing for the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon’s south pole on August 23, 2023 (Wednesday), was 18:04 IST, with the powered descent of Vikram lander at 1745 IST.

A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle was used for the launch of the spacecraft that was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then it was through a series of orbital manoeuvres been lowered closer to the moon’s surface.

Ever since the July 14 launch, ISRO had been maintaining that the health of the spacecraft remained “normal”.On  August 5, Chandrayaan-3 was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit with multiple key manoeuvres thereafter.

Then on August 17, the mission marked another giant leap in its lunar quest as the ‘Vikram’ lander module of the spacecraft successfully separated from the propulsion module on Thursday. The Chandrayaan-3 mission’s lander is named after Vikram Sarabhai (1919–1971), who is widely regarded as the father of the Indian space programme.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 and its objectives are to demonstrate safe and soft-landing on the lunar surface, roving on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

Chandrayaan-2 had failed in its lunar phase when its lander ‘Vikram’ crashed into the surface of the Moon minutes before the touch down following anomalies in the braking system in the lander while attempting a landing on September 7, 2019. Chandrayaan’s maiden mission was in 2008.