India lands on the moon

India's space programme has successfully landed a spaceship on the moon. On 23rd August 2023, the world's biggest population became the fourth to make a moon landing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi feels inspired by the scientists' achievement.

Narendra Modi: "Friends, science and technology are the basis of our prosperous nation, and this day will be remembered forever for this achievement. This day will inspire us all to move towards a bright future."

The crewless spaceship, Chandrayaan-3, meaning "mooncraft" in the Sanskrit language, made its landing at 12.34 GMT. This has come a few days after a Russian spaceship failed to land in the same area and four years since India's failed attempt.

P Veeramuthuvel leads the Chandrayaan-3 project.

P Veeramuthuvel: "The entire mission operations, right from launch till landing, happened flawlessly as per the timeline. And, we became the fourth country to land, to demonstrate the soft landing onto the moon's surface and we became the first country to go to the near to the south pole of the moon."

India's mooncraft has weaker engines than US Apollo engines from the 1960s and 70s. In order to pick up speed, Chandrayaan-3 had to make several orbits around the Earth before it headed off for its month long journey to the moon.

On board was a solar powered robot called Vikram, which means "Valour". Vikram is responsible for capturing photos of the moon's south pole surface and sending them back to Earth over a two month period.

The mission cost $72.6 million, which is significantly less than what other countries have spent on their missions.

India's celebrating the historic achievement but hopes the next moon mission will have a crew on board.

Sreedhara Somanath's the chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Sreedhara Somanath: "And I want to thank you also for each and every one who prayed with us in the last many days, who wanted this success to happen in ISRO. I thank all those people in, all around the country, and maybe beyond the country, for their blessings and wishes and affection that they have given to each one of us for doing this work for the last so many years."

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