Sri Lankan envoy congratulates India ahead of Chandrayaan-3 soft landing

NEW DELHI: With Chandrayaan-3 set to land on the moon on Wednesday, Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda congratulated India on Tuesday.

Chandrayaan-3 is set to land around 18:04 IST. "It is a moment of pride for India, but also for us as we are also a part of the sub-continent.

So, congratulations India," Moragoda said. He further talked about the strengthening relations between Sri Lanka and India.

"I think one relation is that our DNA is the same and the other is civilization...We are moving toward connecting India and Sri Lanka closer together. Our president (Ranil Wickremesinghe) visited India and met PM Modi in July. The common vision statement issued after that visit was further connectivity in electricity, petroleum and in having aviation and sea connectivity. Even physical connectivity has been envisaged. We are talking about oil pipelines, frequent flights, and ferry services...," he added.

Director General of the Indian Space Association, Anil Kumar Bhatt noted that once Chandrayaan-3 will do a soft landing tomorrow, India will be among the four countries which have done a soft landing on the moon to date.

"When Chandrayaan-3 will do a soft landing tomorrow, we will be among the four countries which have done soft landing (successful landing) on the moon till now...This will be a proud moment for the people of the country," he said.

Earlier today, High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, Vikram Doraiswami said that there could be no bigger statement of India's remarkable success as a nation.

"For me, there could be no bigger statement of India's remarkable success as a nation. I am not saying this just as an Indian diplomat but as a proud Indian," he said.

He further said that India started the space program when it had little economic means.

"We started our space program at a point in time when India had very little economic means. Today it is a space programme that is limited only by human imagination. We will be among the few nations to be able to land anything on the moon. That's ahead of everybody practically in this world," he added.

Doraiswamy added, "We have been able to run this space program even today at a price that is less than we know even of some Hollywood movies. It is cost-effective, technology-intensive...It is something that really fires the imagination of the young people."Moreover, he also noted that it is a brilliant example of everything that is an aspiration about India.

After Russia's Luna-25 mission failed, all eyes will be on India as its Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the moon on August 23, 2023 (Wednesday), around 1804 IST.

In its latest update on Chandrayaan-3 soft landing, ISRO meanwhile said the mission is on schedule and systems are undergoing regular checks. The live telecast of the landing operations will begin at 5:20 PM IST on Wednesday.

Live actions of landing will be available on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV from 5:27 PM IST on Aug 23, 2023.

Along with the mission’s update, ISRO also released images of the moon captured by the Lander Position Detection Camera (LPDC) from an altitude of about 70 km. These images assist the lander module in determining its position (latitude and longitude) by matching them against an onboard moon reference map.

Notably, the 'Vikram' lander module of the spacecraft successfully separated from the propulsion module on Thursday, and subsequently underwent crucial deboosting manoeuvres and descended to a slightly lower orbit.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission's lander is named after Vikram Sarabhai (1919–1971), who is widely regarded as the father of the Indian space programme. A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle was used for the launch of the spacecraft that was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then it has been through a series of orbital manoeuvres been lowered closer to the moon’s surface. It has been a month and eight days since the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14.

The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota. The stated objectives of Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, are safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, rover moving on the moon's surface, and in-situ scientific experiments. India will be the fourth country in the world to achieve this feat after the United States, Russia, and China, but India will be the only country in the world to land on the lunar south pole.