Chandrayaan-3 Highlights: Vikram Lander scheduled to make soft landing at 6.04 pm on 23 August

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The critical process of soft-landing has been dubbed by many including ISRO officials as "17 minutes of terror", with the entire process being autonomous when the lander has to fire its engines at the right times and altitudes, use the right amount of fuel, and scan of the lunar surface for any obstacles or hills or craters before finally touching down.

The Assam School Education Department has asked all schools to organise special assemblies of students to watch live stream of Chandrayan-3 landing on the moon on Wednesday.

The School Education department in a letter to the Director of Elementary education, Secondary education, State Council of Education, Research and Training (SCERT) and the Managing Director of Adarsh Vidyalaya has directed them to organise special assemblies of students from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm on the occasion in all the schools of the state.

Excitement rose in India on Tuesday on the eve of a much-anticipated moon landing, with prayers held for its success, schools marshalling students to watch a live telecast of the event and space enthusiasts organising parties to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is scheduled to land on the lunar south pole at 1234 GMT on Wednesday, days after the failure of a Russian vehicle trying to achieve the same feat.

Success for Chandrayaan-3 will make it the first to land on the lunar south pole, a region whose shadowed craters are thought to contain water ice that could support a future moon settlement. (Reuters)

In the previous mission too, ISRO's social media handles had attempted to use lighthearted messaging with a hashtag called #CY2Chronicles. One of the initial posts in the Chandrayaan-2 chronicles series was a comic strip depicting the separation of the propulsion module from the lander module. The post on September 6, 2019 on X (then known as Twitter), Chandrayaan-2's lander module is depicted as saying to the propulsion module -- "It was quite the journey indeed! I will see you around -- in the next orbit." Quite the journey indeed for Chandrayaan-2's module, having orbited through since then to meet its successor Chandrayaan 3's lander module and greet it with a "Welcome buddy!" (PTI)

“The Chandrayaan 3 has a wider area of 4.5 km*2.5 km. The priority is safe landing. Comparing to Chandrayaan 2, required fuel has also been enhanced. The power source has also been enhanced,” Padma Shri awardee and former ISRO scientist Mylswamy Annadurai told ANI.

"ISRO scientists have worked hard for this, and it will definitely be successful. The south pole of the moon is very important because there is a possibility of water. An interview model of Chandrayaan has also been prepared here as well as a screen has been installed which gives complete information about Chandrayaan-3 Mission," Project Coordinator of Bhopal Science Centre, Saket Singh Kaurav, told ANI.

“I want to congratulate ISRO. I will pray for a successful soft landing,” says BJP SP Baghel on the scheduled landing of Chandrayaan-3 on Moon's surface tomorrow," said Satya Pal Singh Baghel, BJP Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh's Agra.

On Chandrayaan 3 mission, Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM and BJP leader Brajesh Pathak told ANI, "I congratulate the citizens of the country and all the scientists involved in the mission. Under the leadership of PM Modi, the country is moving forward in all sectors."

People offer namaz at Lucknow's Islamic Center of India for successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 tomorrow. 

The Uttar Pradesh administration on 22 August directed that the government schools to remain open on 23 August between 5:15 pm to 6:15 pm and arrange live telecast of Chandrayaan-3's soft landing on the Moon for students.