Nerves gave way to smiles at the spaceport in Sriharikota as delays and an anomaly-triggered 'hold' forced Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists to revise the launch schedule of a test vehicle carrying payloads related to the country's ambitious human space flight mission, Gaganyaan which soared into skies after initial hiccups.
Out of its 47 operational satellites, India currently has six to eight satellites which are used entirely for military purposes.
A mysterious shooting incident at a ISRO facility in the early hours near Bangalore threw up conflicting versions with a CISF guard claiming that two unidentified persons shot at him while the police raised serious doubts.
Since Pakistan has 'opted out' of the project, it is now being called South Asian satellite.
Chandrayaan-3 is now in an orbit, which when closest to Earth is at 173 km and farthest from Earth is at 41,762 km, the space agency said.
The ISRO lost communication with the satellite when it attempted to ignite the engine in a third and final move to its desired location.
The feat is the second one for the Indian Space Research Organisation scientists in using the indigenously made cryogenic stage after the January 5, 2014 launch of GSLV-D5.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), ISRO said, "Chandrayaan-3 Mission. Chandrayaan-3 Rover to MOX, ISTRAC, Moon walk begins!"
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.
India performed yet another space feat on Wednesday when the Indian Space Research Organisation launched a record 104 satellites into orbit from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, something no other country has done before.
The primary goal of HysIS, whose mission life is five years, is to study the earth's surface in visible near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
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.
India's ambitious third Moon mission's spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 after the launch on July 14, had entered into lunar orbit or the Moon's orbit on August 5.
Only three countries (United States, Russia and China) have successfully landed spacecraft on the airless lunar surface.
Indian Space Research Organisation's plan to soft land Chandrayaan-2's Vikram module on the Lunar surface did not go as per script in the early hours of Saturday, with the lander losing communication with ground stations during its final descent.
"Chandrayaan-2 is not the end of story. Our plans on Aditya L1 solar mission, human spaceflight programme are on track. A large number of advance satellite launches are planned in the coming months. SSLV will make its maiden flight sometimes in December or January. Testing of 200 ton semi-cryo engine is expected to begin shortly. Work is on to provide NAVIC signals on mobile phones, which will open the path to develop large number of applications for societal needs," he added.
This camera that assists in locating a safe landing area -- without boulders or deep trenches -- during the descent is developed by Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC), a major research and development centre of ISRO.
Former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Official Mike Gold has said Chandrayaan-3's success is a triumph of Indian innovation, human capital and the capabilities that will take India even further.
ISRO chief's comments came after NASA said that it had found the remains of the Vikram lander by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and credited the discovery to Chennai-based amateur astronomer and engineer Shanmuga Subramanium.
On Thursday, scientists sent the 1,380 kg spacecraft to its next destination -- highly elliptical orbit of 300 km perigee and 1.6 lakh km apogee respectively. This will be followed by three more orbit-transfer exercises.
Here is a glimpse of the journey of India's third lunar exploration venture has taken so far.
Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space-based observatory that will study the Sun from a halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from the Earth.
ISRO needs next generation launchers and new facilities to manufacture and launch them.
The ISRO said that 90 to 95 per cent of the mission objectives have been accomplished, notwithstanding the loss of communication with the lander.
The Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon after it spun into an uncontrolled orbit, Russia's Roscosmos space agency said on August 20.
ISRO launched 12 Indian, 22 foreign satellites and successfully flight-tested India's first winged-body aerospace vehicle.
The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are to demonstrate a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, to demonstrate rover roving on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
GSLV-MK III, which uses a homegrown cryogenic engine, has to do at least two more launches before it begins commercial operations, report Raghu Krishnan and T E Narasimhan.
The space agency had earlier announced that the launch is tentatively scheduled at 09:28 hrs IST on November 25, subject to weather conditions.
Preparations are in the final stages by the Chennai-headquartered space-tech startup Agnikul Cosmos for the maiden launch of India's first-ever private launchpad and the second rocket launch by a private sector player.
The counselling session was likely to begin in the first week of July. However, the counselling authorities had not notified any date or schedule.
The website of Indian Space Research Organisation's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited was reportedly hacked on Sunday and the space agency said efforts are on to set it right.
A mysterious flying object has reportedly been sighted by shepherds over Indian Space Research Organisation's Mahendragiri centre and neighbouring forest areas.
Here is ISRO's SAC Director, Nilesh M Desai explains the crucial stage of soft landing.
It also carries equipment for meteorological data relay and satellite based search and rescue services being provided by earlier INSAT satellites.
Scientists also expressed the hope that any technical problem will be sorted out by ISRO, and the mission will be launched successfully.
Modi gave these directions during a meeting to review the preparedness of the Gaganyaan mission and the first demonstration flight of the crew escape system test vehicle scheduled for October 21.
The first Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre of India's maiden mission to Mars was on Wednesday carried out successfully by Indian Space Research Organisation scientists on the spacecraft, which is presently travelling some 2.9 million km away from Earth.
When asked if it would be possible to achieve the Gaganyaan mission with the given time frame, Sivan said, "Yes, we are not doing this for the first time, and we are also not starting the mission from the scratch. We are already on the job," adding that several important procedures, like the crew module, crew escape systems, environment control and life support systems, had already been completed.
The soft landing of the spacecraft is planned for late August. The mission is expected to be supportive to future interplanetary missions.
