Chandrayaan-3 live: Indian space agency achieves historic Moon mission landing

No other country has successfully landed on the Moon’s uncharted south pole

Watch India's Chandrayaan-3 land on moon in historic space feat

India’s space agency Isro has achieved the unprecedented soft landing of a probe on the Moon’s uncharted south pole.

The mission’s Vikram lander began hurtling towards the lunar surface as planned, travelling at about 1.68km per second, and fired its engines to successfully align the probe vertically to the Moon’s surface.

The space agency‘s teams were awaiting the arrival of the mission’s Lander Module (LM) at its designated point around 5.44pm local time (1.14pm BST) to initate the landing sequence.

The live telecast of the module’s descent phase bagan at 5.20pm Indian time.

Until now, no other country has achieved a soft landing on the Moon’s south pole, which is known to contain traces of water ice in its shadowed craters.

The module then made a soft landing as planned on the lunar south pole at about 6.02pm local time (12.34pm GMT/UTC).

“India is now on the Moon,” said Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who addressed Isro staff members immediately after the landing.

Key Points

• What to expect from Chandrayaan-3 mission
• How to watch India's Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing
• Challenge ahead as India attempts historic landing on Moon
• Live coverage of India’s Moon landing attempt begins
• Chandrayaan-3 mission’s blueprint for crucial moments before landing

[23 August 2023 11:48 · Vishwam Sankaran]

How Nasa and ESA are helping India's Chandrayaan-3 mission

Isro is collaborating with space agencies Nasa and ESA as part of the international antenna network to continuously track Chandrayaan-3.

Tracking stations in different parts of the world are tuned in to help safely guide the mission towards the Moon.

“All systems Green at ESA for today’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing attempt,” the European Space Agency’s Operation Centre noted in a tweet.

ESA said it would support the lander “during the entire phase of lunar surface operations, helping to ensure that science data acquired by the rover arrives safely with Isro in India.”

Nasa’s Deep Space Network, consisting of an array of giant radio antennas across the world, has also been providing tracking coverage and telemetry assistance for the mission.

[23 August 2023 11:34 · Vishwam Sankaran]

What to expect from Chandrayaan-3 mission

The main aim of Chandrayaan-3 is to put a lander and rover in the highlands near the Moon’s south pole, an uncharted lunar territory known to contain pockets of water ice.

Isro aims to make a number of scientific studies of the Moon’s south pole from the surface and from orbit as part of the latest mission.

The mission’s Vikram lander carries an instrument called Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the Moon’s surface thermal properties and an instrument for measuring lunar seismic activity (ILSA).

It also carries the Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) instrument to study the Moon’s gas and plasma environment, and a laser device for lunar ranging studies.

You can read more about the mission’s goals here.

[23 August 2023 11:08 · Vishwam Sankaran]

How to watch India's Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing

The live telecast of the Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing event will begin at 5.20pm on India Standard Time (11.50am GMT/UTC) on Wednesday, the country’s space agency Isro noted.

The mission’s Vikram lander is expected to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole at about 6.04pm local time (12.34pm GMT/UTC).

“The live coverage will be available via multiple platforms, including the Isro Website, YouTube, Isro’s Facebook page,” Isro said in a statement.

If the mission’s Pragyan rover manages to find water ice on the lunar surface it could set historic precedent that may spur nations to extract fuel and oxygen from the Moon.

You can read more on this here.

[23 August 2023 10:43 · Vishwam Sankaran]

Challenge ahead as India attempts historic landing on Moon

No country has managed a soft landing on the Moon’s south pole until now.

During India’s previous attempt to do so in 2019, the Chandrayaan-2 mission lander diverged from its intended path and lost communication with the Indian space agency a mile-and-a-half above the Moon’s surface.

In the crucial last moments of landing, known as the “20 minutes of terror,” the mission’s lander will start hurtling towards the lunar surface at about 1.68km per second.

The lander will have to slow down by firing all its engines to align vertically to the Moon’s surface.

It was during this final phase that the Chandrayaan-2 mission tumbled and crashed onto the Moon.

Isro chairman S Somnath told local media that “all preparations” have been done for the current mission, and “all systems have performed as we needed them to until this stage”.