Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander makes successful soft-landing on Moon
Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander makes successful soft-landing on Moon
Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-3 moon mission successfully soft-landed today at 6.04 PM. India scripted history by becoming the first nation to land the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole, days after a Russian probe Luna-25 crashed in the same region.
Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14. Before India, only the United States, Russia and China have achieved a soft-landing on the surface of the Earth’s only natural satellite.
India makes its second attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon on Wednesday, a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and the country’s standing as a space power, just days after a similar Russian lander crashed. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will attempt to land on the lunar south pole about 6:04 p.m. local time (1234 GMT) on Wednesday. Isro said it was all set to activate the automatic landing sequence of the spacecraft, triggering the algorithm that will take over once it reaches above the designated spot and help it land. Stay with TOI for the latest developments
After a 40-day journey starting from the Sathish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission has landed successfully. The Vikram lander should made a soft lunar landing at 6.04 PM IST on August 23.
ISRO started the automatic landing sequence at 5.44 PM IST. The Vikram lander is now using its onboard computers and logic to try to make a soft landing on the Moon. While mission controllers at ISTRAC will monitor it closely, the onboard systems of the lander will be doing all the heavy lifting.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission is the follow-up to the Chandrayaan-2 mission of 2019, when the Vikram lander crashed into the lunar surface. The primary objective of the mission is simple—showcase the space agency’s capability to complete a soft-landing on the Moon. With the mission, India has joined a small and exclusive club of countries that have managed to soft land on the Moon. So far, the club has three members—the United States, the Soviet Union and China.