Skip to main content

Chandrayaan-3

August 23, 2023 will go down in (ironically) Earth's history as the day the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) super successfully soft-landed the 'Vikram' lander in its Chandrayaan-3 mission to Dombivli...err... the Moon - on the 'never-landed-by-any-country-before-India' South Pole.

Long statement to read? Well, turns out going from Sriharikota to the Moon wasn't a short ride either! 

While Indians all over the globe were thrilled about the much-anticipated mission, for at least one kid in the R3K household, because it was an early morning telecast in the States, the mission may very well have been dubbed, the Chandra-yawn! Brother couldn't stay awake if his life depended on it.

As we tuned into YouTube to witness this momentous occasion, couple of things caught my eye. 

First, the announcers - a gentleman (explaining in pure Hindi) and a lady (alternating in good layman's English) gracefully explained the current situation, ISRO's past successes and failures with space expeditions and next steps towards the landing, made us think, this script is going per plan. 15-20 mins in, as they gloriously went off-script, the gentleman starts speaking in English and realizes, he is the Hindi speaker and the lady follows suit by temporarily breaking character and speaking in Hindi and then switching to English. So obvious to the casual observer, that even Kirti (who is not known to be attentive while being glued to the idiot box) noticed this semi-laughable matter.

Moving on, as we inched closer to touchdown, I was hoping (and I am pretty sure, most of you were too) that the simulation on the screen would switch to a live camera feed. A little disappointed that while the camera did switch, it was to get the nation's popular Prime Minister to make an appearance. LOL. Burnol moment for the unMODIfied! 

Jokes aside, I think, this day truly belongs to the men & women, both past and present of ISRO, who have toiled for years and kept the focus on a complex mission like this, especially after the unsuccessful (or should I say, partially successful) mission of Chandrayaan-2. 

Reaching the Moon is just the start of many great things for ISRO, India and India's place in World hierarchy! To think that the landing gear of Vikram etched the Indian Emblem on the surface is a full-on masterstroke! Some genius, them people.

A forward on WhatsApp said IndiaISROcking. In terms of space expeditions and considering samples will be brought back, Indians are truly  now Rock Stars!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Here we go again!

Nearly seven and a half years since my last blog post, and now with the family in India (and me about to join them in a couple of weeks), I am reviving or at least attempting to revive, a passion of mine - blogging. So many things have changed since I last posted; parents visited twice (2016, 2019), in-laws visited once (2017), bought a house (2019), kids grew up (thank you Google photos for reminding us time to time what we created), re-connected with old friends, visited my brother (2021), changed jobs (2022), stayed State-side without a chance to visit India (until now) and of course, a world altering event in March of 2020 that brought everyone to their knees and reset how things are meant to be. While I am eternally grateful to have escaped Covid without any long term repercussions, especially with the family, near and dear ones, all in decent health - there were moments that were truly scary and confusing.  The kids, now 9.5 years old, have grown up so fast - and to see them do w

H_LL_ M_MB__

H_LL_ M_MB__ No, your eyes aren't playing tricks and this is definitely not my version of Wordle. If you are looking for the missing "A, E, I, O, and U" that make up the Hello Mumbai title of this blog, well, I got news for you. They have fallen in one of the million different roads that make up the potholes in dear old  Aamchi Mumbai . Hard-working Mumbaikars might as well hold their backs as they get off an auto or their choice of torture mumbling "AIYYO", day in and day out, to and from their place of business. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. I now think that the glitzy high-rises that dot the city's skyline is nothing more than a smokescreen to divert attention of the occupants of a vehicle to avoid looking down at the craters that might put their lives in jeopardy! Hell, screw the moon, ISRO can land the Chandrayaan-3 near Airoli, if it chooses to. Same difference! Rightfully so, we pride on the fact that cashless payments have made humongous strides to make pe

Sunday Night Update

Watched the first presidential debate on friday night between John McCain and Barack Obama. Good timepass on a friday night, if you are into these things. I have been taking a keen interest in politics lately and it keeps the clock ticking for me after I reach home from work.  I am particularly annoyed and irritated at both these candidates on the Iraq war for always ignoring the fact that over 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives. What wrong did they do? And there aren't too many news outlets that are willing to show the plight of (Iraqi) families who lost near and dear ones. That's obvious, isn't it? Barack Obama looks confident and ready moreso that John McCain to lead the United States for the next 4 years. Looking forward to the Joe Biden - Sarah Palin debate this coming thursday. Should be interesting to see Palin talk extempore without a teleprompter.  Back to some sunday night news here. For the first time in few years since I started following football, I felt bore