India on Wednesday became the first country to land a craft near the Moon's south pole, a historic triumph for its space programme. The unmanned Chandrayaan-3 touched down at 6:04 pm as ISRO officials at the mission control cheered wildly and embraced their colleagues. The landing comes days after a Russia's probe crashed in the same region so the penultimate moments were full of anxiety. The officials of India's space agency were glued to the screen, and so were millions of others across the country, till the proud moment came.
Here's how the landing took place:
The landing was carried out in four stages - the rough braking, altitude hold, fine breaking stage and vertical decent. As soon as the moment started, the tension started building up in the ISRO mission control (MOX).
In each stage, the experts were decreasing the speed and altitude of the lander through a powered descent. ISRO officials were determined to make the mission a success and completed the phase flawlessly.
The lander kept coming closer to the lunar surface, the precision of ISRO scientists was on display. They were all concentrated and kept manoeuvring the lander to its destination.
The "20 minutes of terror" also came into play when the lander reached further close to the Moon's surface. The velocity was slowly reducing, and so was the height. From thousands of kilometres away from the lunar surface, Vikram lander was now just 14 kilometres above it.
Then came the final stage, when the lander hovered over the lunar surface for a few seconds before touching down. These final moments made almost everyone anxious.
But, due to the preparation of ISRO scientists and lessons they learned from the Chandrayaan-2 mission, there was no mistake and Vikram landed perfectly.
The entire MOX erupted in joy, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also joined in, congratulating the ISRO scientists and countrymen.
