Chandrayaan-3 Key Highlights: India Lands On The Moon; ISRO Gets In Touch With Lander

India scripts history as Chandrayaan-3 makes soft landing on lunar south pole, the first by any country. It now joins an elite list of three countries — U.S., Russia and China — to successfully land a module on the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-3's soft-landing achieved, the rover module will now embark on its 14-day assignment to carry out the tasks mandated by the ISRO scientists. Its duties include experiments to further understand the lunar surface.

The rover 'Pragyan' which is in the belly of Lander Module is slated to come out to carry out series of experiments on the surface of the Moon later. The deployment of Rover to carry out in-situ scientific experiments would scale new heights in lunar expeditions, ISRO said.

More details here.

ISRO shared an image captured by the Landing Imager Camera after the landing. It shows a portion of Chandrayaan-3's landing site on the Moon's south pole. The spacecraft chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface.

"Roscosmos congratulates Indian colleagues with the successful rendezvous of Chandrayaan-3," Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a Telegram post. "The study of the Moon is important for all humanity. In the future, it can become a platform for the exploration of outer space."

Russia met with failure on Sunday after its lunar probe 'Luna-25' failed on a soft landing and crashed on the surface of the south pole.

"Congratulations to India and the remarkable ISRO team on achieving a historic milestone with the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 at the Moon's south pole!" UAE Space Agency said in a post on X.

ISRO established a communication link between the Chandrayaan-3 Lander and MOX-ISTRAC, Bengaluru. The agency also shared images from the Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera taken during the descent.

Here's what President Droupadi Murmu said on ISRO achieving the Moon landing milestone in a video address.

U.S. space agency NASA's Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated ISRO on the Chandrayaan-3 success. "We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!" he said.

NASA has extended support to India's mission through its Jet Propulsion Laboratory and network of ground stations.

PM Narendra Modi called ISRO Chairman S Somanath from Johannesburg to congratulate on Chandrayaan-3 landing on moon.

"India is on the Moon," announced ISRO chief S Somanath as Chandrayaan 3 lander module Vikram makes safe and soft landing on the Moon.

Celebrations break out at ISRO''s Mission Operations Complex in Bengaluru as Chandrayaan-3 lander module makes soft landing.

This is historic movement and sounds the bugle for a developed India : PM Narendra Modi on Chandrayaan's succeessful landing on the moon

India scripts history as Chandrayaan-3 makes soft landing on lunar south pole.

The lander is nearing the Moon surface as it undergoes its fine braking phase to attempt the soft landing.

ISRO chairman S Somnath and heads of key ISRO centers are seated at the ISTRAC mission operations centre MOX in Bengaluru, awaiting to witness the finest moment of India's space agency.

Chandrayaan-3 lander module will attempt to land on the lunar surface at approximately 6:04 pm.

World's leading entrepreneurs Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk shared their opinions on India's Moon mission.

Billionaire and owner of social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) Elon Musk has praised India.

Replying to a post which compared the budget of Chandrayaan-3 to the Hollywood film Interstellar, Musk wrote, "Good for India” with an emoji of the Indian tricolour.

Jeff Bezos responded to a post by ISRO on Meta-owned Threads app and wrote, "Rooting for India! Good luck, Chandrayaan 3!"

Jeff Bezos owns the aerospace company Blue Origin.

As the nation eagerly awaits Chandrayaan-3 mission's Lander Module to soft land on the moon, do you know who the lander module is named after? Lander Module aka 'Vikram' is named after Vikram Sarabhai (1919–1971) who is widely recognised as the father of the Indian space programme.

Dr Sarabhai is often called as the father of the Indian space programme. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) in 1962, which later evolved into the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1969.

Recognising the potential of satellite technology for a country as vast as India, Dr Sarabhai was convinced of the role space technology could play in the nation's development. Under his leadership, India sent its first satellite, Aryabhata, into space in 1975. He also laid the foundation for the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in Kerala.

Read on to know more about Vikram Sarabhai.

The lunar south pole draws great interest from scientists worldwide because of the presence of water ice. Existence of water ice in sufficient quantities could be a source of drinking water for moon exploration and could help cool equipment. Water could also be broken down to produce hydrogen for fuel and oxygen to breathe, aiding humanity's efforts for a future lunar colony and deeper space explorations.

Previously, India’s debut Moon mission—Chandrayaan-1— had detected traces of water on the lunar surface back in 2009.

According to NASA, the south pole is a good target for a future human landing because robotically, it’s the most thoroughly investigated region on the Moon. Other than ice, the region may be rich in other mineral resources.

The floors of polar craters on the south pole reach frigid temperatures because they’re permanently in shadow as a result of the low angle at which sunlight strikes the Moon’s surface in the polar regions.

Picture this:

It is not just ISRO that is monitoring the Chandrayaan-3 mission. The European Space Agency is as excited to join the anticipation for the lunar touchdown. The agency is providing support to the mission through its ground stations, which are tracking the Chandrayaan-3's lander module.

The ESA's Space Operations Centre has this to say:

Kartikeya Sarabhai, son of physicist and founder of India's space program Vikram Sarabhai, said the Chandrayaan-3 project represents the 'new India' and every citizen is proud of this project.

In a tribute to Vikram Sarabhai, the Indian Space Research Organization has named Chandrayaan-3's lander as 'Vikram'.

The Indian Space Research Organisation shared visuals from the Mission Operations Complex in Bengaluru as the team gears up for a soft-landing in the lunar South Pole.

Chirag Doshi of Walchandnagar Industries Ltd. told BQ Prime's Sajeet Manghat that demand for launch vehicles from the ISRO and the private sector is expected to double over the next five to seven years.

The space sector contributes significantly to the company's Ebitda, Doshi said. "The space sector is 25% of our entire turnover, but contributes a lot more to our Ebitda... Our aerospace segment's order book currently stands at around Rs 180 crore, (which is) part of the Rs 900-crore total orders."

Read the full conversation here.

India will attempt to join the list of countries, including Russia, the U.S. and China, that have successfully completed soft landing on the Moon.

Soft landings happen when a spacecraft touches down on a celestial body at a safe, slow speed.

Chandrayaan-3 lifted off from Sriharikota on July 14 and will attempt a soft-landing on the Moon's South Pole today. Here's a representation of this month-long journey.

Chandrayaan-3 — India's third space mission to the Moon — after a month-long journey is all set to create history on Wednesday. The Lander Module will attempt to touch down near the South Pole of the Moon today. A successful soft-landing will make India the first country to venture into this uncharted region of the Earth's natural satellite.

The Lander Module, comprising the lander 'Vikram' and rover 'Pragyan', will demonstrate safe and soft-landing on the Moon's surface, roving on the Moon, and conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

The lander houses seven scientific payloads. These include Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment, or ChaSTE, to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; an Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity for measuring the seismicity around the landing site, and a Langmuir Probe to estimate the plasma density and its variations. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA also part of the payload, and will be used for lunar laser ranging studies.

The rover carries two payloads — a LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope and an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer — to ascertain the elemental composition around the landing site of Chandrayaan-3.

The Propulsion Module ferrying the Lander Module also has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit. It will be operated after the latter separates from it.

The mission life of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon's surface will be of one lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 days on the Earth.

Around 48 hours before touchdown, the Lander Module transmitted images of the Moon's surface captured by its Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera.

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter currently in the Moon's orbit has established two-way communication with the Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module, ISRO announced on Monday.

Consequently, the Mission Operations Complex now has more routes to reach the Lander Module.

In the run-up to Chandrayaan-3 attempt to soft-land on the Moon's South Pole, India Space Research Organisation said "the mission is on schedule" and "systems are undergoing regular checks".

The Indian space agency will begin live telecast of the landing operations at Mission Operations Complex, ISTRAC in Bengaluru from 5:20 p.m. today.