India on the Moon, over the moon

Goosebumps and moist eyes. I couldn't contain my excitement as the lander Vikram steadied itself to the right position, decelerated from 1 km per second to near zero, and then touched down near the south pole of the Moon, exactly at 6.03 pm today.

That's a place on the lunar surface where no spacecraft has ever landed. 

As scores of ecstatic scientists broke out into applause, the enormity of their collective achievement was only sinking in.

Lander Vikram approaching the Moon

Vikram after it steadied itself to the right position.

Vikram touches down on the Moon.

This is no mean achievement. One, remotely landing a craft on the Moon is more difficult than getting it to just go around the Moon. Two, the southern areas of the lunar surface are uneven with boulders and crevices. 

The failure of Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 when scientists lost contact with the lander seemed like a bad dream in the distant past. I had blogged about it here. 

(The most critical moments in the above transmission are from 38 minutes to 45 minutes)

There was a quiet race to the south of the Moon because it's believed that there are water molecules (in a solid state) there.

Over the next 14 days, Indian scientists will be studying data relayed by the rover, Pragyan (the Sanskrit word for knowledge). 

India is part of the 28-nation Artemis team. The probes by Pragyan will be beneficial to space scientists across the world in their relentless quest for knowledge and to look beyond the obvious. 

This huge lunar leap will also boost interest in science in general, and astrophysics and related subjects in particular, among students.