Chandrayaan-3 is the third and most recent Indian lunar exploration mission under the Chandrayaan programme of ISRO. It consists of a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan similar to those of the Chandrayaan-2. Its propulsion module acts like an orbiter.
The mission was launched on July 14, 2023, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. It successfully entered the lunar orbit on August 2, 2023. The lander and rover which were scheduled to land on the Moon’s south pole on August 23, 2023, have been a success.
Hence, India became the first and only country to make a soft landing on the lunar South Pole. Meanwhile, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk reacted to a post about India’s moon mission on social media handle, ‘X’.
“Kinda crazy when you realize India’s budget for Chandrayaan-3 ($75M) is less than the film Interstellar ($165M),” Newsthink wrote. The post caught the attention of SpaceX founder, Elon Musk as he reacted to the post and wrote, “Good for India.”
“That’s insane. I love entertainment and Interstellar is one of my favourite movies, but humanity should spend way less money entertaining ourselves and way more money exploring and trying to understand the nature of our universe,” an X user commented.
“Well, India spent $75 million in INR ₹6.15 billion If The currency exchanges were equal, it would still more than 6 billion cost It’s likely that by 2075 both currencies will be around equal INR 615 crore is a very big amount in India,” said another.
“That’s the cost of the third mission. They would leverage the lessons learnt and technologies from the past 2 missions hence those costs should also be considered,” wrote another user.
Meanwhile, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Chandrayaan-3’s triumph mirrors the aspirations and capabilities of 140 crore Indians. To new horizons and beyond! Proud moment for India.”