Lessons from 2019 play out in 18 mins

In the 4 years since Chandrayaan-2, Isro scientists learnt all they could from their failure, then executed those lessons in a tense 18-minute show of perfection

- Soumya Pillai and Jamie Mullick

BENGALURU/NEW DELHI: When Russia's Luna-25 crashed during its attempt to touchdown on the lunar surface on Saturday, it brought global attention on the grave challenges that even space superpowers face in missions of such magnitude.

Indian scientists were very well-versed with these challenges.

Not one Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) scientist working on Chandrayaan-3 needed reminding that the final moments before the craft's landing would be the most perilous. In the four years since Chandrayaan-2, they had spent sleepless nights reliving these final moments of that craft-moments that were perhaps the ones that brought them the most pain.

This time, they knew exactly what they wanted: Braking commands had to be far more precise to ensure that the autonomous landing was executed in a controlled manner and velocity, adequately dropped. And ground stations had to ensure continuous uninterrupted contact with the lander module to keep track of the progress of the descent and make any corrections, if needed.

This time, they knew how to get it done to avoid a repeat of September 2019.

This is why the landing of Chandrayaan-3 marks a pivotal milestone in India's colossal space ambitions. It redraws the global list of space superpowers - placing India among the very elite group consisting of just three other nations that have landed a spacecraft on the Moon.

Chandrayaan-2, and the lessons from it

Speaking to reporters after the landing, Isro chief S Somanath said scientists working on Chandrayaan-3 spent years analysing each contingency and rectifying the errors of Chandrayaan-2, strengthening the hardware and software of the craft, and have prepared for worst-case scenarios.