INDIA scripted history on Wednesday as the Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully landed on the Moon’s South Pole. With this, India became the first country to achieve the historic feat.

This successful soft landing on the moon made India only the fourth country in the world to achieve the feat after the United States, Russia and China. Scientists believe there are good chances of discovering a dense concentration of water, initially detected by the previous Chandrayaan-2 mission.

A flawless soft landing by India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission near the moon’s South Pole brought cheer to a billion hearts, and catapulted India into the exclusive space club. S Somnath, the head of ISRO, said that “India is on the moon”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing ISRO scientists virtually from Johannesburg, said India made a resolve ‘on the Earth and fulfilled it on the Moon’.

“India’s successful Moon mission is not India’s alone… Our approach of One Earth, One Family, One Future is resonating across the globe … Moon mission is based on the same human centric approach. So, this success belongs to all of humanity” he said and tweeted “Chandrayaan-3’s triumph mirrors the aspirations and capabilities of 140 crore Indians. To new horizons and beyond! Proud moment for India.” The Prime Minister watched the landing live from Johannesburg, South Africa where he is currently participating in the BRICS summit.

Political leaders from across party lines took to X (formerly Twitter) to congratulate ISRO and hail the successful landing on Moon’s South Pole.

President Droupadi Murmu said that the landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar surface was “truly a momentous occasion” which happens once in a lifetime and it has made the whole country proud. Prominent leaders across the globe have congratulated India on this feat.

Parties and prayers were held with great fervour across the country in the lead up to the historic lunar touchdown. ISRO live telecasted the landing event on its ISRO website while all TV channels broadcast the same. The Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched on July 14 from Sriharikota.

The Vikram lander began its descent toward the moon surface at a velocity of 1.68 km per second. It then slowed down before beginning a powered vertical descent to the surface of the moon.

A successful landing on the Moon’s south pole on August 23 is not only a boost to India’s prestige but is expected to launch the country’s burgeoning space industry to new heights. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is looking to open its space sector to foreign investment as it targets a five-fold increase in its share of the global launch market within the next decade. The shares of aerospace and defense firms and those related to the two sectors rallied as Chandrayaan-3 was set to touch down on the lunar surface.

India’s current space market is worth around US$8 billion and has been growing at about 4% annually in the last few years, compared to 2% globally. India’s space economy is likely to touch US$40 billion by 2040 and a successful Chandrayaan-3 mission may help India achieve the target much sooner as more countries are expected to approach India for launching their satellites, said analysts.
India’s space sector could capitalise on a reputation for cost-competitive engineering. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) had a budget of around just US$74 million for the mission.

India is looking to follow Nasa’s playbook in opening the space sector to private money. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is developing the Starship rocket for its satellite launch business as well as to ferry Nasa astronauts to the Moon’s surface under a $3-billion contract. Beyond that contract, SpaceX will spend roughly $2 billion on Starship this year, Musk has said. US space firms Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines are building lunar landers that are expected to launch to the Moon’s south pole by year’s end, or in 2024. Companies such as Axiom Space and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are developing privately funded successors to the International Space Station.

There are at least 10 other lunar missions planned between now and 2025, with the US, Israel, China and Japan — including a joint mission with India — all going to Moon. These missions are part of a renewed interest globally to return to Moon and efforts for a more sustained presence.

Aerospace is actually nothing new to India as it can be traced from the mention of Vimanas (flying vehicles) in sacred texts such as the Ramayana and Rigveda, which were composed thousands of years ago.

When the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was founded in 1969, its primary goal was fairly simple – to design and launch satellites for forecasting storms, mitigating floods and bolstering telecommunications in the country. In the beginning, India space missions were carried out with the help of other countries and it wasn’t until the 1990s that ISRO began to design and launch satellites on its own.

But behind the milestone mission, dubbed at the most ambitious yet for India, lies years of effort.

Since then the country has achieved significant milestones to emerge as a leader in space missions. In 2009, India sent a robotic orbiter called Chandrayaan-1 to the moon, which helped discover that water ice can exist on the lunar surface.

In 2014, India successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars, becoming the fourth nation to do so. And in 2017, India created history by successfully launching 104 satellites on a single mission, overtaking the previous record of 37 satellites launched by Russia in 2014.

India will soon be launching missions to monitor and observe the Sun (Aditya -L1), Venus orbiter (Shukrayaan-1), Mars orbiter (Mangalyaan-2), lunar lander, uncrewed spacecraft flight tests (Gaganyaan) all leading to a manned space flight.

Former High commissioner of India to Guyana, Antigua & Barbuda and St Kitts & Nevis Dr KJ Srinivasa congratulated Team ISRO for “the significant feat of making India the first nation to successfully land on the South Pole of the Moon and for making India proud”.

He said that this was indeed a “Big day for India’s space mission, a Landmark Achievement and Momentous Occasion. India has added a golden chapter in the history of space exploration”. He reminisced ISROs numerous achievements of launching satellites at a very low cost, developing technology to benefit farmers, detect & monitor climate change / environmental impact, while supporting India’s various needs in other sectors like defence, energy, etc.

He added, “India stands ready to assist and train scientists from friendly developing countries across the world including the Caribbean in space technology through fully funded training programmes”.