India’s Chandrayaan 3 makes profitable lunar touchdown – Spaceflight Now

Up to date: 12 p.m. EDT with touchdown picture

India’s house company mentioned Wednesday it had efficiently landed its Chandrayaan 3 robotic probe on the floor of the Moon. The Chandrayaan 3 lander touched down close to the South Pole of the Moon at about 8:33 a.m. EDT (6:03 p.m. IST).

“We have now achieved comfortable touchdown on the moon,” mentioned Indian Area Analysis Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Shri Somanath. “Sure, on the moon!”

Lunar landings have proved difficult just lately with the crash of Russia’s Luna 24 probe this weekend, the lack of the Japanese privately-operated Hakuto-R Mission 1 and the failure of India’s personal Chandrayaan 2 lander in September 2019.

Wednesday’s descent and touchdown appeared to go flawlessly. Ten minutes after landing two antennae at NASA’s Deep Area Community monitoring station at Canberra, Australia, have been nonetheless receiving telemetry from the lander.

Chandrayaan 3 lifted off on July 14, 2023, atop a Launch Car Mark 3 (LVM3) from Sriharikota, India. The identify of the mission comes from the Sanskrit phrases “Chandra- Moon, Yaan-vehicle,” in keeping with the ISRO.

The lander is carrying a collection of payloads, together with a small rover. In accordance with Indian house company’s mission profile, each the lander and the rover are anticipated to have a mission lifetime of only one lunar day, which interprets to 14 Earth days.