India takes a walk on Moon as rover rolls out

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: India took a walk on the moon, the ISRO said on Thursday, as Chandrayaan-3's robotic rover rolled out of the lander and commenced mobility operations with all activities on schedule and all systems normal, a day after its historic landing on the unexplored lunar south pole.

The Vikram lander with Pragyan rover in its belly touched down on the Moon's surface "well within the area" identified for the purpose, said ISRO Chairman S Somanath, as the 26-kg six-wheeled rover began its exploration of the lunar surface.

In a post, the space agency said the "rover ramped down", marking the success of yet another stage of Chandrayaan-3, as it lines up a series of missions like the Mangalyaan-2 Mars Orbiter Mission, Gaganyaan Human Spaceflight programme and also the Sun mission Aditya-L1.

"Chandrayaan-3 ROVER: Made in India--Made for the Moon! The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the lander and India took a walk on the moon!"

India on Wednesday scripted history as its third unmanned Moon mission's Lander Module made a flawless soft-landing, making it only the fourth country to achieve this feat, and first to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth's only natural satellite.

Somanath said the rover movement is working "very well". "The lander landed perfectly on the intended site.

The landing location was marked as 4.5 km x 2.5 km -- That space, and the exact centre of that was identified as the location of landing,'' he said.

PM in Bengaluru on Aug 26 to commend Isro team

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Bengaluru on August 26, to greet the ISRO scientists and officials for the successful landing of Candrayaan-3's lander and deployment of rover on moon's surface.

The Karnataka BJP is planning a grand welcome for the Prime Minister by organising a mega road show in the city on his arrival, senior BJP leader and former Minister R Ashoka said on Thursday.

"PM Narendra Modi is coming on August 26. We will be receiving him in big numbers with more than 6,000 people at HAL airport. There, he might address the people of Bengaluru," he said.

Though the details of PM's visit have not been shared, he is likely to visit the Missions Operations Complex at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) here to congratulate the scientists.