India's Space Journey to Chandrayaan-3

 INDIA'S SPACE JOURNEY TO CHANDRAYAAN-3

August 23, 2023, a historic day for India as India created history by becoming the 1st Nation in the World to land on the South Pole of Moon. Soon after the landing, the moment when the "Vikram" Lander touched the surface of the Moon, it felt that the time had stopped, the whole world was watching. It was the proud moment for 142 Cr people living in India, it was the proud moment for each Indian living all across the World in different countries. The whole world congratulated India.

 
      But how was the journey of India in space exploration. Let's go back in time in the 1950's when there was a cold War between the USSR and the USA. It was the time when the space war had started between these 2 countries and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) has not formed. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union(USSR) launched the Earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik I. In 1961 Yuri Gagarin from (USSR) was the first human in space when he orbited Earth aboard the Vostok 1 space capsule. By seeing this the USA also thought to start its space exploration journey by sending the 1st humans on the Moon. It all started with Apollo 1 mission then 2, 3, but these missions were not successful and finally on 21 July 1969, American Astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon. He stepped out of the Apollo 11 lunar module. The USA created history through the Apollo 11 mission.

        India's space journey started by 2 of the greatest scientists, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam when they conducted India's 1st rocket launch at Thumba, Kerala on November 21,1963. The first rockets were assembled in the former St Louis High School, which now houses a space museum. The rocket equipment was carried on a bicycle and bullock cart to the launch area in Thumba. It was from here that India's space journey started. On, Aug 15, 1969 ISRO was established under the chairmanship of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. 

          Aryabhata was India's first satellite that was launched on 19 April, 1975 from Kapustin Yar, a Soviet rocket launch and development site in Astrakhan Oblast using a Kosmos-3M launch vehicle. On July 18, 1980, Rohini was India's first satellite launched from Indian-made launch vehicle Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3).  SLV-3 was successfully launched from Sriharikota Range in Andhra Pradesh. On April 3, 1984, Rakesh Sharma became the 1st Indian to go into space. In 2003 Kalpana Chawla was the first woman of Indian origin to fly into space. In the next few years many missions were conducted by ISRO,  Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM) in 2014, Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 and historic mission Chandrayaan-3 in 2023, Aditya L-1 mission in 2023. Through MOM mission India became the 1st country to reach Mars in its very 1st attempt and the mission budget was approx. 450 Crore which is less than the budget of hollywood movie (The Martian with approx. 600 Cr budget).

                 On 15 February 2017, ISRO made a world record by successfully launching the highest number of satellites(104) on a single rocket, thereby breaking Russia's record of 37 satellites aboard the Dnepr rocket in a single flight in 2014. Its been a long journey for ISRO over the years and the hard work done by thousands of Scientists and Engineers in ISRO. Salute to all the Scientists and Engineers to make the India proud.
            Gaganyaan, Shukrayaan, Bharatiya Antariksha Station, Chandrayaan-3 are the upcoming missions of ISRO.