'Not just India, world waiting for Chandrayaan-3's success': Jitendra Singh

India’s third lunar mission, will be launched by the Isro on board the Launch Vehicle Mark-III from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on July 14.

The success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission is important not just to India but also the entire world, as crucial information from the mission will help future space missions globally, science minister Jitendra Singh said. Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on board the Launch Vehicle Mark-III from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on July 14 at 2.35pm. The lander and the rover will carry scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the moon’s surface. Ahead of the much-awaited launch, Singh spoke in an interview on the significance of Chandrayaan-3 for space programmes globally, future space missions and the government’s focus on space programmes in the future. Edited excerpts:

Union minister Jitendra Singh said Chandrayaan-3 has garnered a lot of interest (PTI)

Read here: ISRO to launch moon mission Chandrayaan-3 on July 14. Check details

How significant is the success of Chandrayaan-3 for India’s space aspirations?

Not just for India, the world is waiting for the success of Chandrayaan-3 because the mission will ensure some very significant findings from the moon, which will be valuable for space agencies globally. There is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm for this mission, even though Isro is known to successfully conduct such missions back-to-back.

Chandrayaan-3 has garnered a lot of interest. The recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US added to the enthusiasm around this mission. Through this visit, it was reiterated to the world that as far as space technology is concerned, India has come of age, and we are a force to reckon with. Our space prowess is second to none and if there has to be a space collaboration with us, it has to be on an equal footing.

Our enthusiasm around Chandrayaan-3 is also loaded with the confidence that we can achieve this feat successfully. We also need to recall that US might be the first nation to land a human on the surface of the moon, it our Chandrayaan-1 mission that first picked up images of water on the surface of the moon. These pictures were also provided to NASA for their future explorations. This mission series placed us at par with global leaders when it comes to our R&D capabilities.

We will be the fourth country to land on the surface of the moon. So, the world will be closely watching our success in this mission. If everything goes well, which we are confident it will, other countries will also be looking forward to the findings of this mission for their own benefit. Chandrayaan-3 is significant not only for India, but for the entire space fraternity across the world.

Chandrayaan-2 mission did not go as planned. How far has our preparations come since then?

For a patriotic Indian, Chandrayaan-2 might come across as a disappointment, but if you look at it scientifically and objectively, it would be unfair to call this mission a failure. None of the other countries were successful in their first attempt. If the mission had gone as we had envisaged, it would have immediately placed us in front of all other countries. We are hoping that this will happen now with Chandrayaan-3.

Read here: Earlier mission was ‘success-based’; this one also factors in failures: Isro chief on Chandrayaan-3

The Chandrayaan-2 mission fell slightly short of the outcome that we were expecting because the descent happened about 12 km away from the desired spot. There were some miscalculation that did not give us the results we wanted. The mission did happen, and it wouldn’t be fair to call it a failure. We live and learn, and the faults have been rectified in Chandrayaan-3.

There are some big-ticket missions lined up in the coming months, including Aditya-L1(the solar mission) and Gaganyaan (India’s human space flight). What is the update on these missions?

Gaganyaan was delayed because of Covid-19. Our astronauts were undergoing training in Russia, but they had to be called back because of the pandemic. We have three missions under Gaganyaan before the manned mission happens. The first mission will be unmanned, the second one would carry a robot on-board and, finally, we will have the manned mission. The most important aspect of the mission is to ensure the safety of our astronauts. As important this mission is to send Indians to space, it is equally important to bring them back to earth safely.

How far has India reached in its space journey and what are the government’s plans for the space sector in the coming years?

When we started our space journey in the early 1960s, the US and the then USSR were way ahead of us. We were just struggling with limited resources. The political leadership at the time also did not give much attention to the space sector. The kind of quantum jump that the space sector has seen over the last few years would not have been possible without the personal involvement of PM Modi.

Read here: All you need to know about India's Chandrayaan-3 and its benefits for the US

The entire world had opened up, but for nearly 70 decades our space programmes hid behind a veil of secrecy. Now the space sector has been unlocked and the doors of Sriharikota has been opened. We were always equal to, maybe even superior to others when it came to human resources. Even today, in NASA, most of the expert hands hail from India. We were never lacking in human resources, but we were lacking in an enabling milieu. The deficiency was at the level of policy planners and political leadership. Now India is being recognised as an equal partner. We have reached the level where the US is seeking an Indian astronaut to be a part of the mission to the International Space Station.