India scripted history as the country's moon mission was successful with Vikram Lander reaching the lunar south pole on Wednesday, August 23, 2023. India became the only country to mark its presence on the South Pole which is considered to be a difficult terrain to conquer given its rough and harsh conditions and the fourth after the USA, China and Russia to have successfully landed on the moon’s surface. It was a historic moment, one for the pride of the whole nation.
Congratulatory messages flooded social media from people of all walks of life as they celebrated India's monumental achievement of reaching the moon. Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik among others led the cricketers' reactions while the men's cricket team watched the successful landing live from Ireland where they are involved in a three-match T20I series.
"@ISRO represents the best of India. Humble, hardworking women & men, coming together, overcoming challenges, and making our tricolour fly high. India must celebrate and congratulate the Chandrayaan-2 team, which was led by Shri K Sivan, along with Shri S Somanath’s #Chandrayaan3 team. Every hard landing has lessons which take us closer to a soft landing - on the moon, and in life," Tendulkar wrote in a long contrulatory message for ISRO and the team involved in the mission.
"The first nation to reach the lunar south pole. That's got a nice ring to it. A proud moment for each one of us & a big congratulations to @isro for all their efforts," captain Rohit Sharma wrote.
Here are the reactions:
The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14. 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 maneuvers been lowered closer to the moon’s surface. After Russia's Luna-25 failed recently, Vikram Lander's journey was keenly observed and its success has only doubled the faith in India's scientists and their hard work.
