Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) team for successfully launching the Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota as per scheduled launch time.A successful ‘soft’ landing on the surface of the moon will make India only the fourth country to achieve the feat after the United States, China and the former Soviet Union.
Chandrayaan-3 carries a lander (Vikram) and a rover (Pragyan) with the aim of conducting in-situ scientific experiments on the lunar surface. The lander, this time, has been equipped with stronger legs compared to its previous version to withstand landings at higher velocities. There are four payloads in Vikram and two payloads in Pragyan, which will be used to study lunar characteristics.
Earlier in 2019, the second series of India’s lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 was launched but it failed to achieve the desired soft landing on the Moon’s surface. The ISRO’s ₹978 crore unmanned mission failed its objective after the lander ceased communication with the ground stations at an altitude of 2.1 km from the surface of the Moon