The Nehru Planetarium in New Delhi erupts in cheers as the Indian spacecraft lands on the moon. The moment gives 28-year-old Manya “goosebumps”. She came to the museum with her fiancé Aryan (33), where the probe can be followed via a live stream from the national space organization ISRO. Hundreds of visitors sit in the theater where video projections are usually shown, or crowd each other in the corridor, their fists triumphantly in the air. Some parents carry their children on their shoulders to see the screens.
Manya is a high school science teacher. Aryan, who easily towers over her and happily holds her hand, studied international relations. “Funnily enough, this combines our interests,” says Aryan: “India is becoming more important in the world, demonstrating that it is a force to be reckoned with even beyond Earth!”
The Nehru Planetarium, a popular museum in the center of the Indian capital, has a permanent exhibition on the most important moments in the history of Indian space travel. Now spacecraft models are used as background for the newscasts. Academic staff are ready to comment on the unique moment for the students and families present. Their excitement is palpable. A garland on the ceiling above the ticket office shows the text ‘chandrayaan’. It means “lunar vehicle” in Sanskrit, the denominator for ISRO’s lunar missions.
Countdown to landing
The denouement comes almost exactly at six o’clock Wednesday evening, as announced by the principal investigator of the lunar mission. Then the Chandrayaan-3 unmanned landing craft lands on the lunar surface. In the Planetarium, spectators count down the meters until landing. Thus, India becomes the first country to land on the south pole of the moon.
With the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, India joins a select group of countries that have reached the moon. The scoop proves that the South Asian country’s space program has matured.
ISRO launched the first Chandrayaan moon mission in 2008 and found evidence of water molecules on the moon. Chandrayaan-2 should have landed there in 2018, but crashed. The couple from Gurugram, a large satellite city of Delhi, remembers the “discouragement” of that failed mission. “I think it’s great that the scientists have managed to come up with a new plan so quickly, and they succeed,” says Aryan. And then, compared to other national programmes, the organization still had a modest budget, he says with satisfaction.
Since the Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14, the Indian media has never lost sight of the device. They reported in detail about each benchmark achieved and shared all the photos the device sent along the way. Major media kept live blogs. The tension grew even more when it was announced on Sunday that a Russian landing mission, the Luna 25, which was also aimed at the lunar south pole, had crashed.
On Wednesday morning, special prayer and sacrifice ceremonies for a safe landing were held in several places in the country and the live stream was viewed in the classroom in some schools. ISRO broadcast live from its headquarters command center in Bengalore, in the south of the country. In that city, people watched on screens in the street.
Nervousness
On that same live stream, New Delhi’s Nehru Planetarium kicks in. As the probe nears the lunar surface on Wednesday evening, a group of discussing students are silenced. During the countdown, a scientist at the Planetarium cannot contain himself: “Let’s not forget that this was the moment our previous lunar device crashed,” sounds through his microphone. “You have to assess the atmosphere a little better, friend,” someone mutters. But the nervousness is broken almost immediately, because just in time, with the exact required propulsion of the engine below, the legs of the Chandrayaan-3 extend. Then everyone – the audience in New Delhi and the scientists and techies in Bangalore – erupt in cheers.
One simple announcement can be heard above the festivities: “We have completed a smooth, safe landing. India is ON the moon.”
India is now a force to be reckoned with even beyond Earth
That message may be extra welcome for one key onlooker: Narendra Modi, who is engaged through a digital connection. At the moment of landing, the lunar craft even shares one split screen with the prime minister waving a small flag. He is the first to congratulate the ISRO scientists. The head of government is in South Africa for the BRICS summit of emerging economies. There he suggested that the five emerging economies should work together on space exploration. Technology and innovation are spearheads of Modi’s policy to create its own market and economy based on advanced know-how. The spacecraft was developed entirely in India itself, which fits within the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ ideal. In recent days, this has received sulky criticism from opposition politicians. They felt that Modi and his allies took the Chandrayaan-3 too much as their own success.
In any case, in New Delhi during the event, it is hard to deny that the mission is seen as a national project – and the successful landing as a source of national pride. Toy versions of the spacecraft are already on sale.
Keshav Sherma, a space enthusiast and salesman of scientific measuring instruments, is also proud. “We show the future.” He will eagerly await the research results from Chandrayaan-3, including the search for water on the rugged surface of the lunar south pole. Because of the scientific breakthroughs ahead, he says he is “sad” that the Russian moon mission has come to nothing. “The countries and the flags are not really important for the advancement of our knowledge. Pride and science now co-exist.” The Russian space agency Roskosmos sent ISRO a congratulations on Wednesday.