Page 3 - Lunar Mission

Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully undergoes last Moon-bound maneouvre

India's ambitious third Moon mission's spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 on Wednesday successfully underwent a fifth and final Moon-bound orbit maneouvre, bringing it even closer to the lunar surface. With this, the spacecraft has completed its lunar-bound maneouvres and it will now prepare for the propulsion module and the lander module separation, ISRO said. "Today's successful firing, needed for a short duration, has put Chandrayaan-3 into an orbit of 153 km x 163 km, as intended. With this, the lunar bound maneuvres are completed.It's time for preparations as the Propulsion Module and the Lander Module gear up for their separate journeys," the national space agency tweeted. Separation of the lander module from the propulsion module of the spacecraft is planned for August 17, it said. Post its launch on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 entered into the lunar orbit on August 5, following which three successive orbit reduction maneouvres were carried out on August 6, 9 and 14 to move closer to the .

Chandrayaan-3: Pragyan rover completes its assignments, set into sleep mode

Chandrayaan-3's rover ramped down from the Vikram lander to the lunar surface on August 25

Sunshine moment for India: Jitendra Singh hails launch of Aditya-L1

The successful launch of the maiden solar mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) came on the heels of the historic lunar landing mission - Chandrayaan-3

After Moon, Sun, Isro readies mission to enhance understanding in Astronomy

After the launch of Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander and Aditya-L1 ventures, ISRO has readied a mission aimed at enhancing cutting edge scientific understanding in Astronomy. XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite) is India's first dedicated polarimetry mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions. The spacecraft will carry two scientific payloads in a low earth orbit. The primary payload POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) will measure the polarimetry parameters (degree and angle of polarization) in medium X-ray energy range of 8-30 keV photons of astronomical origin. The XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing) payload will give spectroscopic information in the energy range of 0.8-15 keV, according to ISRO. "XPoSat is ready for launch," an official of the national space agency headquartered here said on Saturday. According to ISRO, the emission mechanism from various astronomical sources such as blackholes, neutron stars, active galactic

Countdown for India's 1st Sun mission Aditya-L1 begins, to launch tomorrow

The launch of the sun mission is scheduled for Saturday at 1150 IST from the launch pad at Sriharikota, with the launch rehearsal and vehicle internal checks all being completed

Vikram lander's ILSA payload records natural event on lunar surface: Isro

ILSA comprises a cluster of six high-sensitivity accelerometers, which are indigenously fabricated using the Silicon Micromachining process

Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover confirms sulphur in lunar region: Isro

Another instrument onboard the Chandrayaan-3 mission's rover 'Pragyan' has confirmed the presence of sulphur in the lunar region by deploying a different technique, ISRO said on Thursday. The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectroscope (APXS) has detected sulphur, as well as other minor elements on the Moon, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said in a social media post. "This finding by Ch-3 compels scientists to develop fresh explanations for the source of Sulphur (S) in the area: intrinsic?, volcanic?, meteoritic?,......?" read the post. ISRO also released a video of the rover rotating in search of a safe route. The rotation was captured by a lander imager camera. "It feels as though a child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama, while the mother watches affectionately. Isn't it?" ISRO quipped in the social media post. The space agency released a video showing an automated hinge mechanism rotating the 18 cm tall APXS, aligning the detector head to be ...

Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover clicks photos of Vikram lander; check here

Chandrayaan-3: Earlier, Isro said that the rover has unambiguously confirmed the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface near the south pole

Isro's Vikram lander observes Moon temperature, records high of 70 deg C

ISRO on Sunday released a graph of the temperature variation on the lunar surface and a senior scientist of the space agency expressed surprise over the high temperature recorded on the Moon. The national space agency said Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) payload onboard Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole to understand the thermal behaviour of the Moon's surface. "Here are the first observations from the ChaSTE payload onboard Vikram Lander. ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment) measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon's surface," ISRO said in an update on social media platform 'X'. Speaking about the graphic illustration, ISRO scientist B H M Darukesha told PTI: "We all believed that the temperature could be somewhere around 20 degree centigrade to 30 degree centigrade on the surface but it is 70 degree ...

Chandrayaan-3 success opens fresh opportunities for our businesses

It is now for the Indian businesses, Isro and other scientific establishments to capitalize on the well-publicized success of Chandrayaan-3

India showed capability by hoisting tricolour on Moon: PM Modi to diaspora

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that India has shown its capability to the world by hoisting the tricolour on the Moon, asserting that its science and technology and innovation are creating a wave globally. Addressing the Indian diaspora in Greece, he also cited several development feats achieved by his government in the last nine years and emphasised that never before has so much investment been made in the infrastructure sector. Over 25 lakh km-long optical fibre cable has been laid in India since 2014 which is, he noted, more than six times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. India has taken indigenous 5G technology to around 700 districts in record time, he said, drawing cheers from the audience. The world's highest-altitude raid bridge and motorable road besides the biggest cricket stadium and the tallest statue are in India now, he said. Top global bodies like the World Bank and the IMF are praising the Indian economy with leading companies vying with eac

Pragyan rover traverses 8 metres on lunar surface, its payloads turned on

ISRO on Friday said the Chandrayaan-3 rover, 'Pragyan', has successfully traversed a distance of about eight metres and its payloads have been turned on. "All planned rover movements have been verified. The rover has successfully traversed a distance of about 8 metres. Rover payloads LIBS and APXS are turned on," the space agency said in a post on X. "All payloads on the propulsion module, lander module, and rover are performing nominally," it added. The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) is aiming at deriving the chemical composition and infer the mineralogical composition of the lunar surface. The Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) will attempt to determine the elemental composition (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe) of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site. ISRO on Thursday said the Lander payloads ILSA, RAMBHA and ChaSTE were turned on. ILSA will measure seismic activity around the landing site and RAMBHA will study the plasma environment around the ...

Lander Vikram touched down within area identified on lunar surface: Isro

ISRO Chairman S Somanath on Thursday said the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft's lander 'Vikram' touched down on the Moon's surface well within the area identified for the purpose. Speaking to PTI, Somanath said, "(The lander landed) perfectly in the intended site. The landing location was marked as 4.5 km x 2.5 km -- I think on that space, and the exact centre of that was identified as the location of landing. It landed within 300 metres of that point. That means it is well within the area identified for landing." India on Wednesday scripted history as ISRO's ambitious third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) touched down on the lunar surface, making it only the fourth country to accomplish the feat, and first to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth's only natural satellite. The LM comprising the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan) made the soft landing near the south polar region of the Moon last evening. Earlier today, ISRO announced that the rover rolled down from t

Chandrayaan 3's success to propel int'l commercial projects: Ex-Isro chief

Chandrayaan 3's success will further boost India's international commercial contracts as there will be acceptance of its technical competence and launch systems, former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair said here on Thursday. Nair said the success of Chandrayaan-3 is the first stepping stone to begin India's planetary explorations. "We have really broken the ice and made a good beginning," he told PTI. The former ISRO Chairman said the country already has several commercial contracts with Europe and America, and this will grow now with the success of the third lunar mission on August 23. "Certainly the global people will accept our technical competence and quality of our launch system and spacecraft, etc. International cooperation has been on the agenda of the Indian space programme, and it will be strengthened in the days to come," he added. The total cost of Chandrayaan-3, according to ISRO, is Rs 615 crore, which is almost equivalent to a Hindi cinema's production budget. In a giant

Here is how international media covered India's Chandrayaan-3 success

Chandrayaan-3's success has found wide coverage from the international media, including NYT, BBC, WaPo and Al Jazeera. Here's how they covered the event

Celebrities congratulate Isro on Chandrayaan-3's successful landing on moon

Chandrayaan-3 softly landed on the moon's surface on Wednesday at 6.05 pm and the celebration began throughout the nation. Here's how celebrities reacted to India's moon mission success

Chandrayaan-3: No millionaires among Isro scientists, says Madhavan Nair

Buoyed by India's successful Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission, former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said the scientists at space agency have achieved this historic success by getting a salary one-fifth of the scientists in the developed world. According to him, the low wages for the scientists at ISRO are one of the reasons why they could find low-cost solutions for space exploration. "The wages paid to the scientists, technicians, and other staff at ISRO are hardly one-fifth of what is given globally. So that gives an advantage," Nair told PTI while talking about the Indian space agency's history of exploring space at very low expenses. He said there are no millionaires among ISRO scientists, and they always live a very normal and subdued life. "They are not really bothered about the money but are passionate and dedicated to their mission. That is how we achieved greater heights," Nair said here. He said the scientists at ISRO could achieve this through careful planning and long-term

Chandrayaan-3 lands softly on moon's surface, here's how the world reacted

After the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission, India created history and became the only country to land near the South Pole region of the Moon. Check how the world reacted

Chandrayaan-3: After landing on Moon, here's what Pragyan rover will do now

Chandrayaan-3 updates: After Vikram's successful landing on the Moon, now it is up to Pragyan rover to take up the next phase of the mission. What are its goals? Here are the details

India makes history: Chandrayaan-3 touches down on the moon's south pole

ISRO expressed gratitude to NASA, the Australian space agency, and the UK for their assistance in successfully completing the project