Pakistan's Former Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday called for the nation's media to show Chandrayaan-3's landing programme tomorrow and congratulated India, calling the space mission as a 'historic moment for humankind'.
On a post on X (formerly Twitter), Chaudhry said, "Pak media should show #Chandrayan moon landing live tomorrow at 6:15 PM… historic moment for Human kind specially for the people, scientists and Space community of India…. Many Congratulations."
All eyes are on Chandrayaan-3's programme as the landing module comprising the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan) is scheduled to make a soft-landing near the moon's south polar region at 6:04 pm on August 23 (Wednesday).
If the Chandrayaan-3 mission succeeds in making a touchdown on moon and in landing a robotic lunar rover in Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) second attempt in four years, India will become the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the lunar surface after the US, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
ISRO has also prepared Plan B if for some reason successful landing is not possible on August 23. In such a situation, the landing of Chandrayaan-3 will be done on August 27.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join the Chandrayaan-3 landing programme virtually from South Africa, as per sources. The Indian Prime Minister is currently set to join the 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa's Johannesburg.
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 and its objectives are to demonstrate safe and soft-landing on the lunar surface, roving on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
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