Bengaluru, 24 Aug, 2023 (GNP): Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 smoothly landed on the lunar south pole on Wednesday in a mission perceived as pivotal to lunar exploration, just a few days after an identical lander from Russia crashed.
The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, who is currently in South Africa to participate in the BRICS summit, was seen happily waving the Indian flag as he watched the historic landing from a foreign land. He said, “This is a victory cry of a new India.”
All the scientists and officials of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) clapped, cheered, and hugged each other as the spacecraft smoothly landed and the Indian government is considering boosting investment in private space launches and satellite-based related businesses from now onwards.
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The chief of ISRO, S. Somanath expressed, “India is on the moon, as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft named Vikram landed on the moon.
However, this was India’s second endeavor to land a spacecraft on the moon which happened shortly after failure of Russia’s Luna-25 mission. Millions of people, especially Indian nationals watched the live streaming of that historic moment worldwide and applauded India for the big success.
The word Chandrayaan means “moon vehicle” in Hindi and Sanskrit. The Chandrayaan-2 mission of ISRO stationed an orbiter successfully, but its lander unfortunately crashed in 2019.
The Chandrayaan-3 is anticipated to be operative for two weeks, conducting a series of experiments along with spectrometer research on the mineral composition of the moon’s surface.
Also Read: India set to launch Chandrayaan-3 mission to moon’s South Pole
Moreover, the rough landscape makes a landing on a southern region of the moon challenging, this is the reason that the first landing is very historic in nature. The South Pole’s ice could supply fuel, oxygen, and drinking water for future missions.
Furthermore, a partner and managing director at consultancy SpaceTec Partners, Carla Filotico remarked, “Landing on the south pole (of the moon) would actually allow India to explore if there is water ice on the moon. And this is very important for cumulative data and science on the geology of the moon.”
India is the fourth country who successfully landed on the moon after the US, Russia, and China and the first one to explore the lunar south pole.
