E-Paper
Pune experts applaud, students celebrate Chandrayaan landing
The lead-up to the successful landing - especially the last 17 minutes before the rover landed on the Moon - was fraught with anticipation and anxiety
As the Chandrayaan 3 made a successful soft landing on the Moon, experts lauded India’s (and ISRO’s) historic achievement while students and educational institutions – which had organised a live streaming of the milestone within their campuses – celebrated the occasion with great gusto.
Congratulating ‘Team ISRO’ on the successful mission, director of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) Pune, professor Yashwant Gupta, said, “It is a very important landmark for science and technology in our country. Not only the science and technology community but all Indians are proud of this achievement by ISRO. We will now be in the league of nations that have successfully landed on the Moon and this achievement opens up huge possibilities for the future – for Indian scientists, further exploration of the Moon, launching projects as well as setting up base on the Moon.”
Former director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Raghunath Mashelkar, posted on the social media platform X: “History made by Chandrayaan 3. Today is the 29,800th day of my life and it is the proudest! Was lucky to watch history being made by India. Heartiest congratulations to the entire, incredible ISRO family. You have made 1.4 billion of us Indians proud!”
Professor Somak Ray Chaudhury, former director of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) Pune and currently vice-chancellor at Ashoka University, said, “It is important to see that people are out on the streets cheering and we see this picture everywhere now about the Chandrayaan 3 landing. Before this, India and ISRO have done amazing things but nobody has seen it in such detail. Now people and even kids know what ‘rough breaking’ and ‘fine breaking’ are. Earlier, people used to cheer for our cricketers when they won matches but Indians are now cheering for our scientists. Each one of us is excited and sees this as a national achievement and also an achievement for our scientists.”
Yogesh Wadadekar, astronomer at NCRA, while speaking to the media, called it the ‘most incredible moment in the history of India’s and more particularly, ISRO’s space exploration’. “It’s a very dramatic achievement for ISRO. Over the next 14 days, the solar-powered rover will go around the Moon. Both the lander and rover are equipped with advanced scientific equipment and I am really excited to know more about the mission,” Wadadekar said.
According to Wadadekar, the rover is equipped with two spectrometers which allow it to carry out a detailed analysis of the chemical composition of the Moon’s surface so as to figure out the presence of water and other minerals. “This is very crucial for ISRO,” he said.
Meanwhile, students of the New English School, Tilak Road, celebrated the success of Chandrayaan 3 with the beating of drums. The lead-up to the successful landing - especially the last 17 minutes before the rover landed on the Moon - was fraught with anticipation and anxiety. Slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Mataram rented the air as the Chandrayaan 3 landed on the Moon. As part of the celebrations, the tricolour was hoisted and a replica of the Chandrayaan 3 was displayed by the students.
