Chandrayaan-3 Historic Moon Landing, A Few points from the ISRO website, and also Cheering News in Some Foreign Papers

After a 40-day journey starting from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission landed successfully on the Moon at 6.04 PM Indian Standard Time (IST) on August 23, 2023 (Wednesday). Naturally, ISRO scientists and others are joyous, as are all the Indians. I am fascinated to see the line on the ISRO website isro.gov.in/Chandrayaan3
‘I reached my destination, and you too!’: Chandrayaan-3; Chandrayaan-3 has successfully soft-landed on the moon. Congratulations, India! A few points from the website are presented here for the benefit of readers.
a) “The Lander Module is in 25 km x 134 km orbit. Powered descent is expected to commence on August 23, 2023, around 1745 hours of Indian Standard Time (IST).
b) The Lander Module is in 113 km x 157 km orbit around the moon. The second de-boosting is planned for August 20, 2023
c) The Lander Module is successfully separated from the Propulsion Module. Deboosting is planned for August 18, 2023.
d) The spacecraft is in an orbit of 153 km x 163 km after the firing on August 16, 2023
e) The mission is in the orbit circularisation phase. The spacecraft is in 151 km x 179 km orbit (as of August 14, 2023)
f) Chandrayaan-3 is successfully inserted into the lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 164 km x 18074 km, as intended” (as of August 5, 2023)”
It is pertinent to mention that as per the website, “LVM3 M4 vehicle successfully launched Chandrayaan-3 into orbit. Chandrayaan-3, in its precise orbit, has begun its journey to the Moon. Health of the Spacecraft is normal”.
With the mission, India has joined a small and exclusive club of countries that have managed to soft land on the Moon after the US, Russia, and China. For the successful landing on the Moon, many foreign newspapers /agencies felt happy. According to Reuters (online), “An Indian spacecraft landed on the rugged, unexplored south pole of the moon on Wednesday in a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and India’s standing as a space power, just days after a similar Russian lander crashed”. Dawn of Pakistan has written, “India on Wednesday became the first nation to land a craft near the Moon’s south pole, a historic triumph for the world’s most populous nation and its ambitious, cut-price space programme”. Arab News has mentioned, “this was India’s second attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon and comes less than a week after Russia’s Luna-25 mission failed”. Another newspaper Aljazeera has highlighted, “India successfully lands spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, making it the first country to do so”. Also, it observed in the online newspaper that “Indian PM Modi says mission’s success belongs to all of humanity.”
Before conclusion, I wish to mention that ISRO was previously known as the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), set up by the Government of India in 1962, as envisioned by Dr. VikramA Sarabhai. ISRO was formed on August 15, 1969, and superseded INCOSPAR with an expanded role to harness space technology. The Government of India constituted the Space Commission and established the Department of Space (DoS) in 1972 and brought ISRO under DoS management on June 1, 1972.

Prof. Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad