Divay kathuria
Taj Mahal to Gateway of India: celebrations of Chandrayaan 3’s landing begin as AI
imagined successful landing. Chandrayaan-3 is the third and most recent lunar Indian space
research exploration mission under the Chandrayaan programme. Earlier in 2019, due to
problems that had emerged during the last stage of the descent, Chandrayaan-2’s rover lander
and rover crashed on moon’s surface. Chandrayaan 3 is a follow on mission to Chandrayaan-
2 to demonstrate end to end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
Ever since its foundation over the last five decades, Indian Space Research Organization has
repeatedly proved its caliber for big ticket missions and with the launch of Chandrayaan-3,
the agency proved it yet again. India will be the fourth country after- United states, China and
Russia to achieve this. ISRO has come a long way from a bicycle to a billion dreams. It was
formed in 1962 under the leadership of Vikram Sarabhai and physicist Ramakrishnan
Ramanathan. Initially they had no resources and barely any funding. Even the first rocket
they launched, they were transporting parts to be assembled by bicycle and now they are
launching rockets to the moon, mars and beyond. The agency has delivered significant results
despite operating on a shoestring budget right from the beginning. Indian space journey
began with the establishment of Thumba rocket launching station in Thiruvananthapuram and
launching its first rocket on Indian soil i.e. Nike Apache rocket under the NASA’s Apollo
program. The next major event was the launch of indigenously made satellite ‘Aryabhatta’
with the help of Russian space agency. From transporting individual parts of rockets by
bicycle and bullock cart to becoming aatmanirbhar as it currently has three operational launch
vehicles- PSLV, GSLV and the launch vehicle Mark-III give a glimpse of its inspiring jouney.
Union minister Jitendra Malik told the Lok Sabha that ISRO has earned $279 million in
foreign exchange through satellite launches and these numbers are only bound to increase.
ISRO definitely won’t rest here as the challenge of soft landing awaits the Chandrayaan-3’s
team. The moon landing is planned on August 23. If the lander touches down, it will begin its
14 day mission to inspect the lunar soil and the properties of lunar atmosphere. Apart from it,
the another mission in pipeline scheduled for late august is Aditya L-1, India’s first project to
study the sun. Also Isro will shift its focus on the gaganyaan abort test to stimulate the
conditions of gaganyaan launcgh and an abort sequence. ISRO will continue to inspire
millions through its beautiful journey.