Chandrayaan-3: Lunar Landing Fate to Be Decided 2 Hrs Before Touchdown, Says ISRO; Prakash Raj Clarifies on Controversial Post

With thrusters, sensors, altimeters and computer software operating in unison, any glitch could jeopardise the Chandrayaan 3 mission, former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said. “We have to be really cautious and watch. Of course, I understand that ISRO has done enough simulations and also redundancies have been built in so that chances of such failure are remote. Still, we have to keep our fingers crossed,” he said.

Former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair described the upcoming lunar landing of Chandrayaan 3 on Wednesday as a “complex manoeuvre” and stressed seamless coordination among all systems to ensure success. Nair, who led the space agency during the launch of Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008, said, It’s a very complex manoeuvre. We narrowly missed it (soft-landing on the Moon in Chandrayaan-2 mission) in the last two kilometres (above the lunar surface).”

Sharing the images captured by Chandrayaan 3 released by ISRO, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a post on X that the space mission’s “LHDAC camera reveals lunar mysteries, helping us set a safe course for exploration. All credit to ISRO. Compliments!”

Nilesh M Desai, Director of Space Applications Centre-ISRO, Ahmedabad, shared insights about Chandrayaan-3’s Moon landing and said: “On August 23, two hours before Chandrayaan-3 is scheduled to land, we will make a decision on whether it is appropriate to proceed with the landing based on the health of the lander module and the conditions on the Moon. If any factors appear to be unfavorable, we will defer the module’s landing to August 27. Our aim is a trouble-free landing and we remain confident about executing the module’s landing on August 23.”

Speaking on Chandrayaan-3 scheduled landing on the Moon on August 23, actor Kareena Kapoor said, “It is a great and proud moment for each and every Indian. All of us are waiting to watch it. I will be going to do that with my boys as well.”

Actor Prakash Raj defended his post on Chandrayaan-3 on X, which sparked a controversy earlier in the day. In another post he stated, “Hate sees only Hate.. i was referring to a joke of #Armstrong times .. celebrating our kerala Chaiwala .. which Chaiwala did the TROLLS see ?? .. if you dont get a joke then the joke is on you .. GROW UP.”

Abhishek Singhvi, Rajya Sabha MP, CWC member and national spokesperson of the Congress also condemned actor Prakash Raj’s post on X mocking India’s Moon mission. “I condemn Prakash Raj for this shameful tweet. Success of ISRO is success of India,” he said.

The telecast for the Chandrayaan-3’s soft landing on the moon will begin on August 23 an hour before the space mission’s final decent. “Live telecast of Landing event begins at 17:20 Hrs. IST,” the ISRO said. According to ISRO, the lander module carrying Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover, is expected to touch down on the Lunar surface around 6.04 pm on Wednesday.

Chairman ISRO briefed Union Minister Jitendra Singh on the health status of Chandrayaan-3 and said that all systems are working perfectly and no contingencies are anticipated on Wednesday. “In the next two days, the health of Chandrayaan-3 will be continuously monitored. The final sequence of landing will be loaded two days ahead and tested out,” he said.

The Chairman of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and Secretary of the Department of Space, Dr S Somnath, met with Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh in New Delhi today. He briefed him about the status and readiness of Chandrayaan-3 for the moon landing scheduled on the August 23 in the evening.

BJP leader CT Ravi hits out at Actor Prakash Raj for mocking Chandrayaan 3, saying, ‘While Indians are praying for the moon landing of Chandrayaan, some people don’t have faith in the nation’s capability and identity.'”

Prakash Raj landed in hot waters ahead of the scheduled landing of India’s lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s surface on August 23. READ MORE

ISRO has said that live telecast of the landing event will begin at 5:20 pm today. Vikram lander is scheduled to make a soft landing on the surface of moon at 6:04 pm on Wednesday, August 23.

ISRO informed on Monday that two-way communication between the two has established between Chandrayaan-3 and Chandrayaan-2.

“Welcome, buddy!’ Ch-2 orbiter formally welcomed Ch-3 LM. Two-way communication between the two is established. MOX has now more routes to reach the LM,” ISRO said in a tweet.

“Last time after the landing process, we had gone through the data. Based on that, corrective measures have been taken. Not only that, we did something more than what we corrected. Wherever the margins are less, we enhanced those margins…Based on the lessons we learnt from Chandrayaan 2, the system is going with more ruggedness,” said former director of ISRO, K Sivan on Chandryaan-3 mission.

Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi slammed actor Prakash Raj for his tweet mocking the Chandryaan-3 moon mission and said it was “shameful”.

“I condemn Prakash Raj for this shameful tweet. Success of ISRO is success of India. #Chandrayaan3 #VikramLander,” Singhvi said in a post on X.

Annapurni Subramaniam, the director of Indian Institute of Astrophysics, reacted to the news of crash of Russia’s moon mission Luna-25 and said “hope they still continue to have the knowledge, capacity and experience and are able to solve it and go ahead with their Luna-26 and Luna-27 missions as planned”.

“A very big credential regarding space exploration 50 years ago and they attempted this after about 50 years. We hope that they still continue to have the knowledge, capacity and experience and that they will be able to solve it and go ahead with their Luna-26 and Luna-27 missions as planned,” Annapurni Subramaniam said.

Ahead of the landing of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 on the surface of the Moon on August 23, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave his best wishes for the successful lunar mission.

As India’s Moon mission inches closer to its destination, Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 on Friday released riveting images of the moon’s far side captured by a camera aborad Chandrayaan -3. READ MORE

In an exclusive interview with News18, Professor Annapurni Subramaniam, senior astronomer and director of Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, said Chandrayaan-3 will land on the surface of the Moon without any trouble, but it is the last 30 km that will be quite crucial. READ MORE