The journey of human race on earth has always been that of development and celebration. From walking in four feet to standing up to flying in the sky, the evolution is the only constant characteristic of humans. The wide eyes which once opened with sight fixated on the far sky are now looking at the ground from the sky. No, humans don’t have wings. But what they have is science, perhaps 10 times more incredible than wings.
On Friday, 23 August, 2023, around 6.04 PM, 7 million Indians were glued to television screen. The moment Vikram, the lander of the Chandrayan 3, ISRO’s lunar exploration mission touched the ground in the South Pole of moon, not only the S. Somanath, ISRO’s chairperson and 2000 scientists of ISRO leapt up with joyful celebration, but also more than 7 million Indians stood up in silence with tears of joy. India’s Chandrayan mission has been successful, making India only country with its flag on the South Pole of Moon.
While the whole country is busy celebrating this historic and momentous event, let’s look back at the trials and the long road that success took to come.
- 15 August, 1969- Foundation of ISRO
- 1975 – Launch of the Aryabhata satellite marking, India’s entry in Space
- 1979-Bhaskar-1 and 1982 – Bhaskar 2 laying the foundation of Indian Remote Sensing Satelite
- 2008 – Chandrayan 1
- 2013 – Mars Orbitary Misson
- 2019 – Chandrayan 2
The success of Chandrayan 3 also includes the story of failure of Chandrayan 2. When Chandrayan 2 was launched in 2019, expectations were high. But the lander had crashed ultimately before touching the ground. All India grieved while S. Somanath broke down into tears. However, as failure becomes the pillar of success, the scientists took note of all the faults in that mission, made another attempt and finally landed on the moon. It took estimated 610 crore in the whole project. The chief team members were – S. Mohanakumar , G. Narayanan, P. Veeramuthuvel. The name of Kalpana K as deputy project director should be mentioned specially to recognize the role of women scientists in the project whose number was approximately 54. The success is not reflected in the behaviour of ISRO Scientists. It’s also the celebration and fireworks all over India that showed and showered appreciation for the team. Thus India has proven – even sky is not the limit. At CakesandBakes we celebrate this glorious occasion and bow our heads to the in honour of the dedicated team at ISRO .
