India is celebrating its first National Space Day on August 23, 2024. On this day, India achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first country to successfully make a soft landing in the Moon's south polar region. This accomplishment made India the fourth country to land on the Moon and the first to do so near its southern polar region.
Celebrating the success of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission, which safely landed the Vikram Lander and deployed the Pragyaan rover near the moon's South Pole, the Indian government decided to celebrate this day (August 23) as National Space Day.
This day wouldn't be complete without honoring the achievements of every Chandrayaan mission made possible by India's dedicated scientists. Let's take a closer look at India's Moon missions:
Chandrayaan 1 Mission
India launched its first mission to the moon on October 22, 2008, from Sriharikota. The mission was named as ‘Chandrayaan’, meaning the carrier to the moon.
The mission became a huge success for ISRO, as its very first mission to the moon was able to orbit the moon at a height of 100 km, conducting chemical, mineralogical, and photo-geologic mapping. The spacecraft carried a total of 11 scientific instruments from India, the USA, the UK, Germany, Sweden, and Bulgaria.
Once the main mission goals were achieved by the spacecraft, scientists raised its orbit to 200 km in May 2009. Chandrayaan-1 completed over 3,400 orbits around the Moon before the mission ended when communication with the spacecraft was lost on August 29, 2009.
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Chandrayaan 2 Mission
Chandrayaan-2 is India's second lunar mission, following the success of Chandrayaan-1. This mission was majorly focused on the moon’s topographical research and studying minerals to learn more about its origin and evolution.
Launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on July 22, 2019, using the GSLV Mk III-M1 rocket, Chandrayaan-2 aimed to find and measure the amount of water on the Moon's surface.
However, Chandrayaan 2’s Lander Vikram failed to make a smooth landing on the South Polar region of the moon.
Even though Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander crashed, the mission's orbiter kept sending important data. This particular information was very crucial for the Indian scientists while designing and planning the success of Chandrayaan-3.
Chandrayaan 3 Mission
Chandrayaan-3 was a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-2, designed to show that it can land safely and explore the Moon's surface. Its successful landing at 69°S, the farthest south any lunar mission has ever reached, highlights ISRO's determination and innovation in space study.
The mission focused on searching for water ice in the Moon's south pole's permanently shadowed areas, which could be important for future lunar settlements and deep space missions.
The successful landing of the mission on August 23, 2023, is the reason that India is celebrating its first National Space Day this year. ISRO is planning to launch the next edition of Chandrayaan very soon. The success rate of ISRO shows that there are many things that
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