'Our systems are better tested, our craft is sturdier...We are ready'

S Somanath is the man of the hour. He is also very busy. As he waits for the evening of August 23, when India’s third lunar spacecraft is scheduled to land on the surface of the moon after failing to do so four years ago, the chairperson of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is ensuring that all safety checks of the lander are happening, receiving regular reports from the Isro Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) — the main centre from where the craft is being tracked — and scrambling to find time for interviews, such as this one in which he assured HT that his team is confident of a successful descent on the lunar south pole region on Wednesday. Edited excerpts

- Soumya Pillai

How are the preparations coming along for the landing on Wednesday?

We are extremely confident that it is going to be a successful mission. And I want to clarify that this confidence is coming from the work that our teams have put in to ensure the success of the mission over the last four years, after Chandrayaan-2 make a hard landing in 2019. So, this is not overconfidence.

Four years is not a short period [of time], and we have utilised every bit of it in bettering our mission, to map all contingencies and prepare backup plans. In fact, we have prepared backups of our backup plans as well.