In a giant leap for its space programme, India's Moon mission Chandrayaan-3 touched down 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.
Indian Space Research Organisation is gearing up for one of its busiest times with seven more launches planned this financial year, even as India's first human spaceflight remains scheduled for 2027, its chairman V Narayanan said.
The satellite, weighing about 4,410 kg will be the heaviest to be launched from the Indian soil and into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), the space agency said. The satellite will travel onboard a LVM3-M5 rocket, dubbed as 'Bahubali' for its heavylift capability.
ISRO is set to launch its communication satellite CMS-03 from Sriharikota. The satellite, weighing 4,410 kg, will be the heaviest launched from Indian soil into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
The heaviest communication satellite to be launched from the Indian soil onboard a new generation, homegrown 'Bahubali' rocket was successfully placed into the intended orbit on Sunday, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.
ISRO Chairman V Narayanan announces ambitious space program goals, including landing Indians on the Moon by 2040 and launching the 'Gaganyaan' mission in 2027. The agency is also working on a national space station and uncrewed missions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was accorded a warm reception as he arrived at the Indian Space Research Organisation headquarters in Bengaluru on Saturday morning.
'ISRO Chairman Dr. Somanath's leadership truly created history and we extend our hearty congratulations to him and his team,' Venugopal said on X, formerly Twitter.
The race to the uncharted south pole of the Moon is quickening with India's Chandrayaan-3 and Russia's Luna-25 gearing up for lunar landings next week, each mission holding significant implications beyond the thrilling competition in the skies.
'A person weighing 68 kilograms on the Earth would weigh only over 11 kg on the Moon'
Mainstream American newspapers, many of which had been sceptical of India's space mission and sometimes even made fun of it through cartoons, noted the great Indian achievement.
The NASA astronaut with a storied career in space exploration also commended India's substantial role in shaping the field of space exploration.
ISRO on Friday released a set of visuals of the Moon captured by cameras positioned on the Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.
Sachin Tendulkar, Sania, Mirza, Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli hailed Moon mission Chandrayaan-3's successful landing
The lessons learned from the failure of Chandrayaan-2 contributed to the success of India's third lunar mission, former space scientist with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Nambi Narayanan said, after the successful touchdown of the 'Vikram' lander on the lunar South Pole.
Ex-ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said the scientists at space agency have achieved this historic success by getting a salary one-fifth of the scientists in the developed world.
India created history on Wednesday when the lander module of Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar south pole, propelling the country to an exclusive club of four and making it the first country to land on the uncharted surface.
In his latest tweet, the 58-year-old actor said the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon's uncharted south pole was a moment of celebration for mankind.
Chandrayaan-3 mission's Pragyan rover on Wednesday clicked an image of the Vikram lander, ISRO said.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), ISRO said, "Chandrayaan-3 Mission. Chandrayaan-3 Rover to MOX, ISTRAC, Moon walk begins!"
'The ISRO has done enough simulations and also redundancies have been built in so that chances of such failure are remote. Still, we have to keep our fingers crossed'
People gathered in educational institutions, offices, city squares and religious places to watch the Indian Space Research Organisation's live telecast of Chandrayaan-3's final descent to the uncharted surface of the lunar south pole.
Here is the timeline of the moon mission as undertaken by the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The ISRO chief further said that the ISRO is ready to fulfill the vision put forth by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Luna-25 may land on the lunar surface earlier than Chandrayaan-3.
Film folk like Akshay Kumar, Chiranjeevi, Jr NTR and Sunny Deol congratulated the country and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the historic achievement of Chandrayaan-3's landing on the Moon.
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.
The actor said his earlier tweet was referring to an old joke from the era of Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969.
A visibly emotional Modi addressed scientists at the Indian Space Research organisation's command centre in Bengaluru, who were involved in the Chandrayaan-3 mission and lauded them for their efforts.
From the landing of Chandrayaan 3 to the bombardment of Palestine by Israel, a look at some events that shaped the world in the second half of 2023.
I urge you all to watch the special moments of Chandrayaan-2 descending on to the Lunar South Pole! Do share your photos on social media. I will re-tweet some of them too," the prime minister wrote on Twitter.
Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprising the lander and rover has successfully separated from the Propulsion Module, Indian Space Research Organisation said on Thursday.
According to the space agency, Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the south pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the Moon's surface.
While the actor did not specify the man in the cartoon, many social media users slammed the actor for making fun of former Indian Space Research Organisation chief K Sivan.
Interspersing their tweets and posts with an occasional 'Welcome buddy!' and 'Thanks for the ride, Mate!', ISRO's social media handles occasionally departed from using just technical terms to give updates about India's ambitious Moon mission Chandrayaan-3.
If any factor regarding the lander module appears unfavourable, then the landing will be shifted to August 27, said the Space Applications Centre-ISRO about Chandrayaan-3 on Monday.
In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi accused the prime minister of twisting his words and said he was speaking about the power of which Modi was wearing the mask.
After the historic success of its Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is going full throttle with its plans to send Indian astronauts for the first time to the Moon by 2040, ISRO Chairman S Somanath said.
After Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the Moon, the Congress on Wednesday said it is a collective success of every Indian and ISRO's achievement reflects a saga of continuity and is truly fantastic.
Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, according to the Reuters report, said it had lost contact with the spacecraft shortly after a problem occurred as it was shunted into pre-landing orbit on Saturday.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances