India has created history today by making a soft landing on the south pole of Moon through its Chandrayaan-3 mission. Chandranyan-3’s Vikram lander touched down the south pole of the moon and made India the only country to do so. Chandrayaan-3 has a rover and lander while its propulsion module acts as an orbiter.
After the last moment crash of Chandrayaan-2 in 2019, the Indian space aspirations got a serious setback. But with the strong determination of ISRO, within four years, India launched its Chandrayaan-3 mission on July14, with reinforced technology and higher efficiency. With just Rs. 615 crores, ISRO did what any space agency of world could not have thought of. The cost of Chandrayaan-3 is less than half of what is usually spent on making a Hollywood Sci-fi movie Interstellar.
At around 5:45 p.m. the power descent began, with lander’s altitude reducing from 7.4 KM to 6.3 KM. The Fine breaking phase began at 5:59 p.m. when the altitude was reduced to merely 3 KM. At 6:00 p.m., the lander entered the Vertical Descent phase and within a couple of minutes it landed successfully.
PM Modi was virtually present and witnessed the making of history from South Africa, as he attends the BRICS Summit. On successful landing, he waved the national flag in front of the screen. While making an address, PM Modi said, “we had taken a pledge on earth and it has been completed on the moon.”
ISRO chief S Somnath and P Veeramuthuvel, Project Director of Chandrayaan-3 Mission congratulated the country on becoming the first country to reach the moon’s south pole.
On the success of Chandrayaan-3, ISRO tweeted, “‘India, I reached my destination and you too!’ : Chandrayaan-3.”