Failure Of Chandrayaan-2 Worked In India's Favour, Says Former ISRO Scientist Nambi Narayanan

On August 24, 2023, India became the first nation to land near the lunar South Pole and the fourth country, after the US, Russia and China, to land on the Moon overall with its Chandrayaan-3 mission.

The mission owed its success in major part to lessons learned from Chandrayaan-2.

ISRO

Former space scientist with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientist, Nambi Narayanan, said that the lessons learned from the failure of Chandrayaan-2 contributed to the success of India's third lunar mission.

Failure in favour

Congratulating the scientists associated with the Chandrayaan-3 mission, Narayanan said, "Every failure of Chandrayaan-2 was addressed to. Let it be a satellite problem, stability problem or an additional requirement problem. All were addressed to and all were rectified."

Former ISRO space scientist, Nambi Narayanan/ Facebook

Narayanan even said that the failure was in their favour, since the failure of Chandrayaan-2 was used for the success of Chandrayaan-3.

In that way, they (ISRO scientists) have clearly done a wonderful job. We were confident before the launch itself that it (Chandrayaan-3) would be a success. And so it turned out to be. Congratulations to all,¡± he added.

Daunting mission for ISRO, especially considering the budget & past failure

The space scientist said the third lunar mission was a daunting one for ISRO, especially considering the budget, commitment to the country's space programme and the failure of Chandrayaan-2. Despite the challenges, the scientists involved with the project at ISRO knew that the core mission objectives were achievable, he noted.

"It is a great day for ISRO, India and mankind as well. What we have achieved, in a sense, is unbelievable. When I say unbelievable, I mean with the kind of budget that we have, with the kind of other commitments that we have and after a failure (of Chandrayaan-2), which had put us into great difficulty. Yet, we achieved the mission objectives. So in that sense, it is unbelievable. It is also believable because everyone at ISRO knew it was achievable and they achieved it," Narayanan told ANI.

Zeroing in on moon's surface

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh¡¯s Sriharikota on July 14.

A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle was used for the launch of the spacecraft that was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then, it went through a series of orbital manoeuvres before zeroing in on the moon¡¯s surface.

ISRO

The team behind Chandrayaan-3 were: S Somanath, ISRO Chairman; P Veeramuthuvel, Chandrayaan-3 project director; Kalpana K, Chandrayaan-3 deputy project director; Mohana Kumar, mission director; Nilesh M. Desai, Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, director; S Unnikrishnan Nair, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director; M Sankaran, U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) director and A Rajarajan, Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) chief.

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