Only three countries (United States, Russia and China) have successfully landed spacecraft on the airless lunar surface.
India successfully launched IRNSS 1C on board ISRO's PSLV C26 rocket from the spaceport at 1.32 am on Thursday, moving a step closer to setting up the country's own navigation system on par with Global Positioning System of the US.
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.
"I am extremely happy to announce that GSLV Mark III successfully injected Chandrayaan 2 in the defined orbit, infact the orbit is 6,000 km more than what was intended," Sivan said.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday gave away Gandhi Peace Prize 2014 to ISRO in recognition of its services in transforming India through the use of space technology.
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.
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.
This is ISRO's new record of launching 20 satellites, including those from the US, Germany, Canada and Indonesia.
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.
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.
The ISRO had earlier said Chandrayaan-2 will be launched in a window from January-February 16, 2019.Sources said it is expected by the middle of next month but no date has been finalised.
Recently, the government relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) norms for the space sector by allowing 100 per cent FDI in manufacture of components, systems or sub-systems for satellites, ground segments, and user segments. It also permitted 74 per cent FDI in satellite manufacturing and operation as well as satellite data products and 49 per cent in development of launch vehicles and spaceports. Following this, stocks of related companies saw an uptick on the bourses.
Here is a glimpse of the journey of India's third lunar exploration venture has taken so far.
The Indian space agency has already begun work on the third generation of the earth observation satellite -- the first of which will be ready by 2018 and boost the capability to generate digital maps.
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.
Indian space agency ISRO would significantly scale up outsourcing to industries to fuel the quantum jump in the programmes being undertaken by it and has mooted a risk-sharing model, its chairman K Radhakrishnan said.
The Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon after it spun into an uncontrolled orbit, Russia's Roscosmos space agency said on August 20.
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.
The UPA government looks set to give the contract a decent burial and, in turn, redeem ISRO and itself.
The United Nations General Assembly, heeding to a call by Prime Minister Modi, had made a declaration in December 2014 to observe June 21 every year as IDY.
And the first Indian to go into space from 'Indian soil' could well be a woman.
Here is ISRO's SAC Director, Nilesh M Desai explains the crucial stage of soft landing.
The soft landing of the spacecraft is planned for late August. The mission is expected to be supportive to future interplanetary missions.
The rocket is almost 49 meters high -- as much as a 17-floor building. It weighs 415 tons -- as much as the combined weight of 80 full grown elephants.
ISRO Chairman Dr A S Kiran Kumar said there was no information loss following the alleged hacking of the website of the space organisation's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd.
'When a Project Director is appointed, the whole organization -- including the Chairman ISRO -- works for his success. It is a lesson that has been of abiding value all through the other projects I have worked on,' recalls the late President, one of the earliest pioneers at ISRO.
The image shows a part of Indore with the Holkar Cricket Stadium in the centre.
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.
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.
'Today, let us reaffirm our commitment to strive to realise Gandhiji's dreams. His watchwords, truth and nonviolence, will continue to remain relevant for the whole world. He also taught us that rights and duties are but the two sides of the coin - indeed, the true source of rights is duty. Today we recall his lessons in compassion too - compassion not only for our human neighbours but also for our other neighbours, namely, flora and fauna, rivers and mountains.'
It offers a lease of life to terminally ill patients since heart transplant still remains out of reach for most.
Indian Space Research Organisation Dr Radhakrishnan, who has been accused of waging a "personal battle" against him by former ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair, refuted the latter's claims in Bengaluru on Monday. Nair and three other scientists have been barred from holding any government posts because of their alleged role in the Antrix-Devas deal, in which the private firm was allotted scarce S band spectrum by ISRO by allegedly violating rules.
Former President and renowned scientist A P J Abdul Kalam on Tuesday complimented Indian Space Research Organisation for the successful launch of Mars orbiter.
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.
So, if ISRO is able to revive them as the Sun rises on the Moon again, information that is derived from experiments that could once again be conducted by the Chandrayaan-3 payloads would be a "bonus".
The Sarabhai Crater is around 250 to 300 kilometres east of the crater where the Apollo 17 and Luna 21 Missions had landed.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rapped the Haryana and Punjab governments over non-prosecution of violators found guilty of stubble burning and summoned the state chief secretaries to appear before it on October 23 and submit. an explanation.
Hailing the achievement of Indian Space Research Organisation scientists, Kalam told media-persons in Chandigarh that "they (ISRO scientists) have two major characteristics that is excellence in technology and creative leadership."
The video showed the Moon in bluish green colour with many craters.
Around 23 minutes after lift-off, the primary satellite got separated and it was followed by six other co-passenger satellites, which were deployed into the intended orbits sequentially, ISRO said.
