PM Modi will virtually join Chandrayaan-3 landing event from South Africa
New Delhi/IBNS: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a three-day official visit to South Africa for the BRICS Summit, will virtually join the landing programme of Chandrayaan-3 on the uncharted south pole of Moon on Wednesday.
Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) - lander Vikram and rover Pragyan - is scheduled to make a touch down near the lunar south pole at 6.04 pm on Wednesday, days after the failure of a Russian vehicle trying to achieve the same feat.
The success of this Moon mission will make India the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the lunar surface after the US, China, and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
All systems on an Indian spacecraft heading to the moon are working "perfectly" and no contingencies are anticipated on the landing day, the country's space agency said on Monday.
This is India's second attempt to land on the Moon after a failure in 2019.
Chandrayaan-2 had failed in its lunar phase when its lander 'Vikram' crashed into the surface of the Moon following anomalies in the braking system in the lander while attempting a touchdown on September 7, 2019.
During that attempt, PM Modi had flown to Bengaluru to watch the planned touchdown of the lander. Even though the mission failed, the space agency witnessed a heartfelt moment between the Prime Minister and former ISRO chief K Sivan.
PM Modi hugged and consoled Sivan as he broke down, hours after the space agency announced it lost contact wi