India has scripted history on July 22, 2019 inyet another field. On a mission to becominga world power and taking great strides inscience, especially in advanced space technol-ogy, India registered itself as the fourth countryin the world to accomplish the feat of aiming forsoft landing on the surface of moon. Yes, inthat sense we registered our rightful claim onthe moon, what more was it all about than dis-covered so far, its minerals and the possibilityof presence of water and other research work- are all set to be going straight in the kit of theknowledge of our space scientists who havedone proud to India. The speciality about thesuccessful launch is that from a small part tothe most sophisticated one, all are Indianmade. Historic journey of 48 days to moon andits hitherto untouched south pole began fromMonday, July 22. It may be recalled that thelaunch scheduled last week on July 15 had tobe temporarily postponed because of a minorand temporary malfunction which the scientistscall ‘glitch’ which was managed very fast thanexpected and hence the decision by the ISROchief taking the crucial decision to go aheadwith the launch on July 22.The entire Indian nation has applauded thehistoric journey to moon. Why should not thescientists of Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) led by the Chief K. Sivancelebrate after GSLVMk-3-M1 very successful-ly injected Chandrayaan -2 spacecraft into theorbit of the earth? It is the result of incessant,dedicated and with a missionary spirit theirhard work, the result of which not only theIndian nation but the entire world watched veryinterestingly. Prime Minister Narendra Modiobserved, “Thanks to Chandrayaan, India’sLunar Programme will get a substantial boost,Chandrayaan-2 will further encourage ourbright youngsters towards science, top qualityresearch and innovation.” So have other lead-ers expressed their joy and complimented ourspace research scientists.The spacecraft having been separated fromthe rocket, Chandrayaan-2 was placed on theGeosynchronous Transfer Orbit . It may benoted that from the launch till moon landing,there will be different stages of challenging andcomplex manoeuvrings. In other words, fromthe earth’s orbit, it is bound to be transferred toa lunar trajectory that will sling shot the space-craft towards the ultimate goal – the moonthrough a series of complex operations. It ishere, where the superb space science dexteri-ty of our scientists was going to be demonstrat-ed. Journeying into the lunar orbit, the landerwas to detach from the orbiter and choose aright spot for landing after applying brakes forsoft landing. In so far as landing was con-cerned, there were various volcanoes andcrates and ditches on the moon making thesoft landing a very challenging job.Envying the lucky 7500 visitors who wit-nessed live the launch of Chandrayaan-2from the viewers’ gallery at Sriharikota, letus, all the countrymen, wait just for a fewdays more, say till September 7 when the Rs.978 crore mission would see the lander andthe rover modules of the spacecraft make asoft landing on the moon’s surface, sayexactly 48 days from now.
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