Team News Riveting
Bengaluru, August 23
Past 6 pm on Wednesday, as Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module touched down near the moon’s south pole, elated Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) S Somanath jumped to the podium to announce “India is on the Moon”.
India made history at 6.03 pm on Wednesday, August 23, when the Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module touched down near the moon’s south pole. The feat has made India the first country in the world to soft-land near the lunar south pole. The success of its mission makes India only the fourth after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China to land a spacecraft on the moon.
The mission was ISRO’s second attempt to soft-land on the moon after the Chandrayaan-2 lander failed in the final moments in 2019. At 5.44 pm, the Lander Module began its powered descent onto the surface of the moon. The descent was watched on by Union Minister for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh together with the team of scientists from ISRO’s viewing gallery in Bengaluru.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in South Africa for the BRICS summit, joined in via a video link to watch Chandrayaan-3’s descent to the moon. He remarked that Chandrayaan-3’s triumph mirrors the aspirations and capabilities of 140 crore Indians. Sharing a post on X by Indian Space Research Organisation, the Prime Minister said: “Chandrayaan-3’s triumph mirrors the aspirations and capabilities of 140 crore Indians. To new horizons and beyond!
“Chandrayaan-3 is the result of work done by thousands of engineers and scientists, our staff, and industries, support teams across ISRO and other institutions,” the ISRO Chairman said and thanked the team of scientists that worked behind its moon mission Chandrayaan-3.
Project Director Veera Muthuvel said, “It gives me immense pleasure to have been the director. The entire mission, from launch to landing, happened flawlessly and as per the timeline. We have become the fourth country to demonstrate a soft landing on the moon’s surface and the first country to go near the south pole of the moon.” He also thanked the various teams at ISRO who contributed to the success of Chandrayaan-3.
Mission Director Sreekanth also expressed his pleasure at having been a part of Chandrayaan-3. He also extended thanks to all team members who ensured that mission operations were carried out flawlessly.
Associate Project Director Kalpana Kalahasti said, “This will be the most memorable and happiest moment for all of us. From the day we started rebuilding our spacecraft after the experience of Chandrayaan-2, it has been breathe-in, breathe-out Chandrayaan-3 for our team. Starting from the reconfiguration to all the special tests and the assimilations, we have conducted meticulously.”
ISRO scientist M Shankaran, who coordinated the efforts of all the teams in ISRO and other institutions for the success of Chandrayaan-3, said, “Today, we have achieved what we set out to achieve in 2019. Here, I will discuss the tremendous effort made by the entire project team, who have only been focused on Chandrayaan. The amount of criticism faced, and the number of simulations and reviews they’ve gone through, my heart goes out to them. That is what ISRO is all about and has taught us to do. Today, this success has put us at a higher responsibility like the Prime Minister has asked of us. Nothing less than spectacular will we be worthy of. We will be looking at putting man in space, putting a spacecraft around Venus and landing a craft on Mars. All these activities have been going on and this success today will inspire us further.” He also said that, as a person with 36 years of experience in this field, he is aware of the thousands of things that could have gone wrong in a mission like this. That none of it went wrong is a reflection of the efforts put in by everyone in the team, he added.
