PM Modi to virtually attend Chandrayaan-3 moon landing event during South Africa visit

Bengaluru: As India's Chandrayaan-3 gears up for its lunar landing attempt on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually participate in the event from South Africa, where he is attending the 15th BRICS summit as part of his three-day official visit.

Scheduled to touch down near the lunar south pole at 6.04 pm, Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM), comprising the lander Vikram and rover Pragyan, is set to achieve a momentous feat. This comes after a recent setback when a Russian vehicle aiming for a similar landing faced failure. If successful, Chandrayaan-3 will make India the fourth country, following the US, China, and the erstwhile Soviet Union, to master the technology of soft-landing on the lunar surface.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has confirmed that all systems on the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft are functioning "perfectly," and no contingencies are expected on the landing day.

This marks India's second endeavor to land on the Moon, following the unsuccessful attempt of Chandrayaan-2 in 2019. During that mission, the lander 'Vikram' encountered anomalies in its braking system, leading to a crash on September 7, 2019. At that time, Prime Minister Modi had flown to Bengaluru to witness the planned landing and provided emotional support to former ISRO chief K Sivan after the lander lost contact.

During the interaction, PM Modi expressed his resolve to continue space exploration, saying, "Our determination to touch the moon has become even stronger and the best is yet to come."

Chandrayaan-3 embarked on its mission on July 14, with a launch from India's primary spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. Over the subsequent three weeks, ISRO executed a series of moves, gradually positioning the spacecraft into orbits that extended farther from Earth. On August 1, a pivotal maneuver known as a "slingshot move" was successfully executed, propelling the spacecraft towards the Moon from Earth's orbit. Following this trans-lunar injection, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft transitioned away from Earth's orbit and began its trajectory towards the moon.