Prayers for success of India's Chandrayaan-3's moon landing

As the Chandrayaan-3 lander neared its destination, a 'havan' (religious ritual) was performed at Kamakhya Temple in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi for the success of India's third lunar mission. 

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the moon on August 23, around 18:04 hours IST.

Earlier, on Monday, ISRO chairman and secretary of the Department of Space, S. Somanath, called on Union Minister Jitendra Singh in the national capital, apprising him of the status and readiness of ‘Chandrayaan-3’ for the moon landing. 

The ISRO chairman briefed the minister on the health status of Chandrayaan-3 saying all systems are working perfectly and no contingencies were anticipated on Wednesday, the scheduled date for landing on the lunar surface. 

Over the next two days, the health of Chandrayaan-3 will be monitored continuously, he said, adding that the final sequence of landing will be loaded two days ahead and tested out.

During the meeting, Union Minister Singh expressed confidence in ‘Chandrayaan-3’ making a soft landing this time, adding that he hoped that it would script a new history of planetary exploration under the guidance of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Live actions will be available on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV from 17:27 IST on Aug 23, 2023.

While the ‘Chandrayaan-2’ mission was only “partially successful” since the lander lost contact after a hard landing, the ISRO successfully established two-way communication between the Chandrayaan-3 lander module and the still-orbiting Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. In a significant development, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter which was already fixed around the moon established a two-way connection with the lander module of Chandrayaan-3 on Monday.

India will be the fourth country in the world to achieve this feat after the United States, Russia, and China, but India will be the only country in the world to land on the lunar south pole.

The primary objectives of Chandrayaan-3 mission are threefold: to demonstrate safe and soft landing on lunar surface; to demonstrate rover roving on the moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched on July 14, 2023 via the GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota at 2:35 PM.

(ANI)