Chandrayaan-3: ISRO director expresses optimism, says it will be ‘feather-like’ soft-landing

There are five days to go for the historic Lunar soft-landing attempt of India's Chandrayaan-3. Once accomplished, India would be the fourth nation to soft-land a craft on the Lunar surface. Sharing his resounding optimism about the same, Dr S Unnikrishnan Nair, Director of ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, echoed the anticipation of the nation, as it awaits the historic touchdown of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the Lunar surface. Conveying his wishes to the ISRO fraternity for the big moment, Dr Nair said, "For a feather-like landing of Chandrayaan-3, on August 23rd, in the evening...".

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Dr Nair was addressing the 11th convocation of the Government-run Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, where he serves as the director. On Friday, the institute conferred degrees on a total of 275 students of B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD.

The convocation was presided over by top officials from the Indian space sector — DrB N Suresh, Chancellor, IIST, DrK Radhakrishnan, Member Space Commission & former Chairman ISRO, DrS Somanath, Chairman ISRO, DrV Narayanan, Director ISRO, LPSC among others.

IIST is the first of its kind in the countryto offer high-quality education at the undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral levels in areas with a special focus on space sciences, space technology and space applications. "Together, we stand on the precipice of scientific achievement, united in the pursuit of knowledge and exploration... In that, may our nation's development thrive," Dr Nair said at the convocation.

On Thursday, 17August, after completing a 33-day journey in transit in space, the integrated Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft separated into two parts - the propulsion module (PM) and the lander module (LM). While the PM will continue to orbit the moon, the LM will gradually de-boost, lower its orbit around the moon and prepare for the lunar landing, planned for 23rd August, around 5:47pm IST.

Meanwhile, Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft is also attempting to soft-land on the moon, between 21st and 23rd August. While the erstwhile Soviet Union performed multiple unmanned lunar fly-bys and succeeded in lunar landing and exploration missions, Luna-25 will be the first for Russia. India's Chandrayaan-3 and Russia's Luna are targeting to land near the Lunar south pole, an unexplored and highly-cratered region that could potentially hold deposits of water ice and offer insights into the origin and evolution of the moon.

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