Editorial | History Scripted 

Launched on July 14, 2023, the much anticipated Chandrayaan-3 finally landed on the moon’s South Pole on August 23, 2023 at around 6:04 PM (18:04) – making India the first country to achieve the feat to land in the lunar South Polar region. With the feat, the country has entered the elite club of countries for achieving soft landing on the moon’s surface after the United States, USSR (now Russia) and China. The coveted feat didn’t come as easy as one would’ve seen it on their television sets, mobiles or any other gadgets, as had its share of despair and despondency after the last mission failed to make the cut in 2019. However the scientists involved in the mission didn’t lose hope and came back stronger to make it big this time around to make the things count for them and the country. What makes the achievement more important is that it comes just days after Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft went out of control and subsequently crashed on the moon’s surface. The Chandrayan-3 among other pursuits has been launched with an aim to hunt for water-based ice which, scientists say, could support human habitation on the Moon in future. It is believed that it could also be used for supplying propellant for spacecraft headed to Mars and other distant space destinations. Notably, the fresh successful launch of Chandrayaan-3 comes 15 years after the country’s first Moon mission in 2008 in the form of Chandrayaan-1, which discovered the presence of water molecules on the parched lunar surface and established that the Moon has an atmosphere during daytime. The ISRO already has a long list of missions on anvil which includes Aditya-L1, X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, Gaganyaan 1, Gaganyaan 2, Shukrayaan-1, Mangalyaan 2, Gaganyaan 3, Lunar Polar Exploration Mission among others. Wishing the ISRO and its allied sectors and departments all the best for its future endeavours and at the same time thanking them for making our country India proud on the global level.