Chandrayaan-3 Soft Landing On Moon: After Chandrayaan-3’s historic soft landing on the Moon’s south pole, praises poured in for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from the international scientific community. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield, and European Space Agency Director General Josef Aschbacher are some of the eminent personalities from the space community who congratulated ISRO on this historic achievement.
Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander softly landed on the Moon at 6:04 pm IST on August 23, 2023.
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Nelson congratulated India for becoming the fourth country in the world to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon.
Writing that he is thoroughly impressed, Aschbacher said, “What a way to demonstrate new technologies AND achieve India’s first soft landing on another celestial body. Well done, I am thoroughly impressed.”
Congratulating ISRO and India, Hadfield said, “You are there, safely and proudly on the Moon!”
The UK Space Agency wrote on X “History made!”
Professor RC Kapoor, an Indian astronomer, said that Chandrayaan-3 is the “best moment” of his life.
Former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayan, on whose life the Indian-language movie Rocketry is based, said: “What we have achieved is unbelievable”.
All the phases of descent during the ‘15 minutes of terror’ were successfully completed. Chandrayaan-3 underwent initial preparation, velocity reduction, orientation change, attitude hold phase, fine braking, final descent, and touchdown. Powered descent began after the automatic landing sequence was initiated.
After the Vikram lander successfully landed on the lunar south pole, the sensors signalled the computer onboard the spacecraft. The Pragyan rover will be unfurled three-and-a-half hours after the lunar dust has settled down.
Chandrayaan-3 will operate on the Moon for about 14 Earth days.