Bengaluru :: India scripted history Wednesday becoming first nation to land its spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 successfully on the moon’s south pole. While the lunar-landing race between Russia and India was neck-and-neck, Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashed and India surged ahead clinch the notch in history.
Chandrayaan 3 made a flawless softlanding on the lunar landscape this evening 6:03 pm Indian time. The landing process started at 5:44 pm at an altitude of 25 km from the lunar surface. The lander’s 4 thruster engines helped it descend early at a slow place.
Chandrayaan-3 aims to establish presences on and study south pole of the moon, where pools of ice could provide water for long-term settlements or act as a fueling station of sorts for space explanation. The moon is now real estate hot spot with countries across the world vying to demonstrate their technological prowess and help man understand our closest celestial neighbour.
Chandrayan- lifted off from Sathish Dhaan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Mark-3 rocket on the 14th of July at 2:35 pm. On 5 Aug, Chandrayaan 3 entered the lunar orbit and on 17th the land modules separated from the propulsion module following which it underwent 3 successive orbit reduction maneuvers to move closer to moon. It came closest possible (25 km) to the moon on 20 August. If all goes well, the unmanned spacecraft will deploy a 20-kg, solar-powered rover to explore the moon’s surface for two weeks.
Only three countries successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon’s surface before, namely Russia, U.S. and China.
