Indians took to the streets to celebrate after the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the Moon. (Source: Reuters)
India's unmanned Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully landed on the south pole of the Moon at 7:34 p.m. on August 23 (Hanoi time) after a 41-day journey. This mission is considered a major step forward for not only India's but also humanity's lunar exploration program.
With Chandrayaan-3 landing on the Moon, India also became a space power alongside the US, Russia, and China.
According to Reuters, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi directly monitored the landing of Chandrayaan-3 even though he was attending the BRICS summit in South Africa.
"This is an unforgettable moment. This is extraordinary. This is a resounding victory for the new India," Prime Minister Modi said after Chandrayaan-3's historic landing.
The success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission is considered a major step forward for not only India's but also humanity's lunar exploration program. (Photo: India Today)
From the ground control station, scientists and officials from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) stood up to celebrate this historic milestone. More than a billion Indians also took to the streets to celebrate, bursting firecrackers and dancing.
“ Indians have arrived on the moon ,” said ISRO Director S. Somanath after the landing of Chandrayaan-3. India became the fourth country to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon after the US, China and the Soviet Union.
ISRO has shared images from Chandrayaan-3 of the Moon's surface as well as the area around the spacecraft.
According to aerospace experts, the rugged terrain makes landing on the Moon's south pole an extremely difficult task, but exploration and search for rocks in the area could provide a premise for future human lunar missions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also sent a congratulatory message to India in a message to Mr. Modi posted on the Kremlin website.
“This is a huge step forward in space exploration, demonstrating the impressive progress India has made in the field of science and technology,” Putin stressed.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also congratulated ISRO after Chandrayaan-3 landed.
“Congratulations to India on becoming the 4th country to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon,” he wrote in a post on social network X, formerly Twitter. “We are happy to be your partner in this mission!”
Chandrayaan-3 is scheduled to launch successfully on July 14, 2023. This is India's second attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon and comes less than a week after Russia's Luna-25 mission failed. Indians are watching their television screens and praying for Chandrayaan-3 as the spacecraft prepares to land.
Nearly 7 million people watched the live stream of Chandrayaan-3's landing on YouTube.
Chandrayaan means "lunar vehicle" in Hindi and Sanskrit.
In 2019, ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully deployed the spacecraft to lunar orbit but failed to land.
The landing position of India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft compared to previous spacecraft from the US, China and the Soviet Union. (Photo: Reuters)
Chandrayaan-3 is expected to spend two weeks on the Moon, carrying out a series of experiments including spectroscopic analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface.
Chandrayaan-3 is equipped with two instruments, the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), which will perform two important experiments.
The goal of LIBS is to conduct qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis and determine the chemical and mineral composition of the lunar surface, while APXS will determine the elemental composition of lunar soil and rocks surrounding the landing site.
ISRO said the deployment of Chandrayaan-3 to conduct in-situ scientific experiments will set a new standard for lunar exploration. It is considered the first opportunity to explore the possibility of water, a key factor in future lunar missions.
According to Mr. Somanath, the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 gives India confidence in subsequent space missions to Mars and Venus.
India is also planning to launch a mission in September 2023 to study the Sun. ISRO has ambitious plans to launch a human space mission by 2024, and that plan is underway.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission is estimated to cost India around $74 million, a budget that is only equal to the production cost of some Hollywood (US) space movies.
Tra Khanh (Source: Reuters)
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