India on Friday will attempt for a moon landing reaching a milestone that is set by global superpowers. If this mission is successful India will become the fourth country to reach the lunar surface in a controlled manner. The first three countries to achieve the same are Russia, The United states and China.
This attempt is being tried again after the Chandrayan (Mooncraft) ended in failure four years ago. The stated reason was that the ground crew lost contact a few moments before landing.
This time it is expected that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will surely succeed and will open the doors for future lunar missions.
Anil G. Verma of Godrej & Boyce, ISRO’s principal engine and components supplier commented that
“We’re sure this one will be successful and will bring pride and recognition to everybody who has worked for it”.
The mission is set for 14 days and the cost involved for the launch is $74.6 million. The launch is expected to be successful in exploring the lunar surface.
At 2:35 pm local time (0905 GMT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre that is located in the north of Chennai is the launch time for the mission. It is expected that a huge crowd is expected to witness the launch.
K. Sivan who was the ISRO chief in the last lunar landing attempt by India said that he is very happy and hopeful.
An expansion of Space programme
There is a considerable expansion of India’s Space programme since 2008 when India sent their first satellite to orbit the moon.
We are the first Asian country that has sent a satellite to orbit around Mars in 2014 Three years later 104 satellites were launched by ISRO in a single mission.
A three day manned mission will be launched by ISRO by the name of The ISRO’s Gaganyaan (“Skycraft”) programme into the Earth’s orbit.
The private payloads are being sent into orbit at competitive prices by India with an aim to increase its 2 percent share of the global commercial space market.
Best will come soon
The previous lunar mission of Chandrayan-2 of 2019 had cost $140 million. This stated cost is twice the cost of the current launch and still a smaller budget than what other countries had spent on similar projects.
The mission is all set to celebrate the 50th anniversary year of Neil Armstrong’s first-ever moonwalk that had a sad ending. The lander went silent just before 2.1 kilometres or 1.3 miles from touchdown.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had motivated the ISRO chief by giving a long and tight hug saying India will always be proud of their efforts.He addressed them saying India has a glorious history of thousand years with moments that had slowed our growth but we have always risen and fought back.
The Prime Minister added, “We have bounced back again.When it comes to our space programme, the best is yet to come.”