TIME.CO, Jakarta – Spaceship IndiaChandrayaan-3, successfully made a soft landing near the south pole of the Moon on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. The success marked an important milestone for the country.
“We got a soft landing moon! India is on the moon!” said the president of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Sreedhara Somanath, quoted by Space.com.
5 Facts About India’s Successful Moon Landing
1. India is the fourth country to have successfully landed on the moon
The success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission landed India on the list of lunar landers. India is now the fourth country after the Soviet Union, the United States and China to have successfully landed on the moon.
“India will set a new record with a successful landing,” said former Indian Space Agency chief K. Sivan after Chandrayaan-3 launched into space.
2. Chandrayaan-3 the second trial led by India
The Chandrayaan-3 lander is India’s second attempt to land on the moon. The country’s first attempt to land on the moon was made in September 2019, but it failed when the Chandrayaan-2 lander crashed into the moon due to a technical problem.
“India’s current success can be attributed to a major shift in its landing strategy after the crash of Chandrayaan-2 in 2019,” said Anil Bhardwaj, director of the Physics Research Laboratory (PRL) in India.
3. Domestic-made Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft
Nearly four years later and with numerous design and software updates, the domestically built Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was launched on an LVM3 rocket on July 14 from the Sriharikota Spaceport on India’s east coast.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft entered an elliptical orbit around the Moon early last August, then performed several maneuvers to move in a nearly circular path, which it traveled about 150 kilometers above the lunar surface.
Announcement
4. Misi pendaratan Chandrayaan-3
Chandrayaan-2’s next mission is seen as important to explore parts of the lunar surface that have never been touched before. India’s Chandrayaan-3 has landed near the south pole of the Moon, a largely unexplored region and of great interest to scientists and exploration advocates.
The south polar region is believed to contain large amounts of water ice which, if accessible, could be mined to make rocket fuel and life support for future manned missions. Furthermore, the exploration aims to demonstrate India’s capabilities in spaceflight activities.
5. Support from the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency or ESA provided space communications support for the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Communications are an essential part of any space mission.
Quoted from ESA’s official website, for the Chandrayaan-3 mission, ESA is coordinating regular support from Kourou Station in French Guiana and Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd in England. These stations complement support from NASA’s Deep Space Network and ISRO’s own stations.
ESA’s 35-metre-long antenna at New Norcia, Australia provided additional tracking support during the Moon landing, acting as a backup for the ISRO ground station.
New Norcia receives a stream of vital signals from the Chandrayaan-3 lander – information about its health, position and trajectory – in parallel with the ISRO station.
This type of backup media is common at critical times space like landing. It is this telemetry stream that is ultimately used to ensure a successful landing.
Editors Choice: Get to know Chandrayaan 3, the Indian spacecraft that successfully landed on the moon
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