While the historic success of Chandrayaan-3 is celebrated by Indians across the world, two untrumpeted engineering colleges in Kerala are basking in the glory of the key role played by some of their alumni in the crucial Moon mission.
The entire mission operations of Chandrayaan-3, right from the launch till landing, "happened flawlessly" as per the timeline, the team that led India's third mission to the Moon said on Wednesday.
Announcing that the health of Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module is normal, ISRO on Friday said that the module has successfully undergone a deboosting (slowing down) operation, taking it closer to the Moon.
India's second mission to the moon will be launched on Monday at 2.43 pm after its initial launch on July 15 was called off owing to a "technical glitch."
India's first solar mission, if successful, will showcase ISRO's ability to explore the cosmos, explains Kumar Abishek.
India's lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 holds immense potential for gathering critical data and will significantly contribute to the understanding of the Moon, a former top National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) official has said, describing India-United States space partnership further moving to the moon.
India scripted history as the ambitious third Moon mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) touched down on the Moon's south pole, propelling the country to an exclusive club of four and making it the first nation to land on the uncharted surface.
Even as the scientists and staff at Mission Operations Complex broke into applause, the core team members thanked all those who had worked on the mission. Quietly and without jingoistic boasting of their stupendous achievement. And that is the most remarkable aspect of ISRO -- they let their work do the talking, notes Minnie Vaid, author of Those Magnificent Women And Their Flying Machines, ISRO's Mission to Mars.
Friday's mission is the fourth operational flight of LVM3 which aims to launch the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into a Geo Transfer Orbit.
In a post on X, Modi said, "Happy to have welcomed @POTUS @JoeBiden to 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. Our meeting was very productive."
'The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the area of the targeted Chandrayaan-2 Vikram landing site on October 14 but did not observe any evidence of the lander'
The rover will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
From The New York Times to BBC and The Guardian to The Washington Post, the historic event in India's space programme on Wednesday made headlines across the globe.
The COVID-19 lockdown has hit several projects of the ISRO including Chandrayaan-3, which was scheduled to be launched in late 2020, and Gaganyaan, the country's first manned space mission.
Four years after it broke many hearts, Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan is all set to soar towards the moon in its third expedition on Friday in an attempt to put the country in an elite club of nations that accomplished lunar missions with a soft landing.
India will become the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the lunar surface after the US, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
Chandrayaan 3 follows the Chandrayaan 2 mission which did not achieve the desired soft landing on the surface of the moon in 2019, disappointing the scientists.
The ISRO said that 90 to 95 per cent of the mission objectives have been accomplished, notwithstanding the loss of communication with the lander.
During the day-long debate, the lines between science and religion often got blurred with many invoking religious texts and the contribution of 'rishi munis' to highlight India's tryst with the extra-terrestrial world.
The entire process being autonomous when the lander has to fire its engines at the right times and altitudes, use the right amount of fuel, and scan of the lunar surface for any obstacles or hills or craters before finally touching down.
"The panel's report is awaited. The committee has been given a guideline to prepare the mission before the end of next year," a senior ISRO official said. "There is a good launch window in November".
The Royal Observatory Greenwich has announced the shortlisted images of the 2022 Astronomy Photographer of the Year!
Using a comic strip, the ISRO tweeted, showing orbiter telling the lander 'Vikram' that it enjoyed its company before it separated on September 2 afternoon.
Late on Monday night, in a last-minute revision of schedule, ISRO announced that the launch of India's second lunar mission 'Chandrayaan-2' has been called off due to a technical snag.
The mission has three modules - Orbiter, Lander (Vikram) and Rover (Pragyan)
The implementation of the NRC as nothing but a political vendetta of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government, she told the assembly.
NASA posted images clicked by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera, showing the site's changes on the Moon and the impact point before and after the spacecraft had made a hard-landing on the lunar surface.
"It is going to be the most complex mission ever undertaken by ISRO. It is going to take place between July 9 and 16, this year," Sivan said, addressing scientists from the Mission Control Centre.
The Indian space agency is all set to embark on its most complex mission.
The landing on the moon near the South Pole, an uncharted territory so far, would be on September 6 or 7, Sivan told reporters, as the Indian space agency is all set to embark on its most complex mission.
Nervous and anxious for sure but the city-headquartered space agency is cautiously optimistic of "Vikram" module's soft-landing on the Lunar surface planned in the early hours of Saturday.
The Rs 978 crore mission, which has been rescheduled for Monday after scientists corrected the glitch in the rocket, will be launched at 2.43 p.m from the second launchpad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, over 100 km from Chennai.
ISRO chairman K Sivan said all activities related to the third lunar mission -- Chandrayaan-3 -- were going on smoothly but its launch may shift to next year.
The ISRO is aiming for a soft landing of the lander in the South Pole region of the moon where no country has gone so far.
NASA said it is looking forward to explore the solar system with its Indian counterpart.
Two de-orbit manoeuvres of Vikram Lander, to bring it further down, have been planned to prepare for its landing in the south polar region of the moon.
The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft is expected to reach the moon's orbit on August 20 and land on lunar surface on September 7.
Indian Space Research Organisation will announce a revised launch date later.
ISRO chairman K Sivan said the proposed soft-landing was going to be a 'terrifying' moment.
On October 3, Subramanian, a Chennai-based mechanical engineer, had tagged the Twitter handles of NASA, LRO and ISRO in a tweet, asking, "Is this Vikram lander? (1 km from the landing spot) Lander might have been buried in Lunar sand?"
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