An entire nation waited, praying and hoping fervently, as the countdown to touch down on the moon wound to a slow close on Wednesday with many thousands gathering in schools, places of worship and elsewhere and scientists doing last minute checks to ensure Chandrayaan-3 makes a soft landing on the lunar south pole.
If the Chandrayaan-3 mission succeeds in making the touchdown and in landing a robotic lunar rover in the Indian Space Research Organisation's second attempt in four years, India will become the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the lunar surface after the United States, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
The landing is scheduled near the moon's south polar region at 6:04 pm.
In temples and dargahs across the country people gathered for special prayer meets for Chandrayaan-3's success, while in schools and colleges, excited students keenly watched the live-telecast of the mission's progress with bated breath.
In the national capital, government school students formed a human chain to mark the ISRO's achievements and Chandrayaan-3's progress, while children at the Sarvodaya Kanya Vidalaya-Rajouri Garden held a prayer meet along with their teachers.
Nearly 150 girl students of the al Jamiatul Islamia Islahul Banat Madrassa at Mandoli here took part in a special prayer meeting, while people gathered at temples, mosques and gurudwaras for making offerings for the moon mission's success.
Students across the country, including in Delhi, were glued to screens and large television sets setup at their schools and college's campuses watching the Chandrayaan-3 live-streaming.
The coverage of the soft-landing was available on multiple platforms, including the ISRO's website, YouTube channel and Facebook page, and DD National TV channel.
The space agency had urged all schools and educational institutions to actively publicise the event among their students and faculty, and organise its live streaming.
The Union education ministry too has asked universities and higher education institutions, including IITs and IIMs, to organise live-telecast of the moon mission.
Students gathered at schools with posters and placards wishing for Chandrayaan-3's success, while some even painted the spacecraft on their face.
In Odisha, a group of priests at the Lord Jagannath Temple assembled in front of the 12th century shrine's Lion's Gate and lit diyas seeking divine blessings for the success of the lunar mission.
Bhaskar Mishra, a researcher, said that 'as Lord Jagannath is worshiped as the master of the universe, His blessings are most essential for India's lunar mission'.
Puri Shankaracharaya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati, an expert in Vedic mathematics, said many 'puranas' have mentioned about the 'chanda' (moon).
"Our ancient saints were familiar with the 'Chandra'. Therefore, space scientists should also take reference from the puranas while going for lunar mission, he said and wished all success for the moon mission," he said.
While priests performed havans in temples across the country, clerics at several dargahs, including in Mumbai and Bhubaneswar, took chadar as offerings for the missions success.
In localities and residential colonies in several cities, projectors were also put up to live-stream the mission's progress.
ISRO on Wednesday said it is all set to initiate the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS) for its ambitious third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) to touch down on the lunar surface this evening.
'All set to initiate the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS). Awaiting the arrival of Lander Module (LM) at the designated point, around 17:44 Hrs. IST (5:44 pm),' ISRO said in a post on X.
'Upon receiving the ALS command, the LM activates the throttleable engines for powered descent. The mission operations team will keep confirming the sequential execution of commands,' it said.
After checking all the parameters and deciding to land, ISRO will upload the required commands from its Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) facility at Byalalu near here, to the LM, a few hours before the scheduled touchdown time.
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 following anomalies in the braking system in the lander while attempting a touch down on September 7, 2019. Chandrayaan's maiden mission was in 2008.
The Rs 600 crore Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched on July 14 onboard Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM-3) rocket, for a 41-day voyage to reach near the lunar south pole.
The soft-landing is being attempted days after Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon after spinning out of control.
