Chandrayaan-3’s success connected with the hearts of the people. The successful landing of the Rover on the moon was not just a scientific event but an emotional issue for every Indian, said S Somanath, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The success of Chandrayaan-3 had many secondary effects. It was a high-end scientific accomplishment. India was the fourth country in the world to land on the moon and the first at the south pole of the moon. It created an emotional exuberance in the minds of youngsters and children and showcased it to everybody. There is so much enthusiasm among youngsters who want to be astrophysicists; they want to join ISRO and work on space technology, said Somanath while speaking at the TN Global Investors Meet 2024 on Sunday.

“It was a motivational factor as to how a great scientific accomplishment appropriately put in front of the public can create a major impact in the minds of people,” he said.

On learning from the failure of Chandrayaan 2, Somanath said it had been four years since the failure of the Chandrayaan 2 lander to soft land. After failure, coming back strongly with success was an arduous task. The first task and challenge was to understand what went wrong, he said.

“Unfortunately, we could not collect the debris back from the moon, but it has been reconstructed to understand what went wrong, and hypotheses had to be created. It had to be recreated again and again. Not one element but multiple issues could have gone wrong for the failure. Understanding what went wrong was the crucial part, and making sense out of it,” he said.

The second issue was to overcome the failures and modify them. This is always easy, as people will find a way to do it. But this has to be validated again and again. “We can’t have another failure. The validation process went on for another two years. Then we started building the space system, testing it rigorously, and looking at many more such possibilities, he said.

“After I took charge, in the last two years, a great deal of time was spent on ensuring that the simulation part was complete. You don’t leave any uncertainty in the hold. You exert the system to extreme conditions. Even if something fails, you still land. The only goal was to land softly. Unless everything was proven, I did not authorise to land. We delayed this for nearly six months to make sure that the process was completed. This includes software and hardware validation. This ultimately led to the success,” he said.

The year 2024 is going to be the year of the Gaganyaan in terms of preparedness. ISRO will do the unmanned missions this year, followed by all the test flights to demonstrate crew abort capability. The crew module is under development. Everything is on track. “We need to achieve the manned mission by the end of 2025. That’s our target. With 100 per cent confidence only we will go. Schedule is important, but safety is more important,” he said.

On the newly planned Kulasekarapattinam rocket launch site in Thoothukudi in southern Tamil Nadu, Somanath said the purpose of the new launch station was not to replace Sriharikota or de-cluster it but to create an alternative launch site. Today, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota is the only launch site. We must have geographically placed another launch centre. The second issue is to support the emerging launch actors, especially those building small satellites and rocket building. They must have a more exclusive and free place to operate in their own facilities. This is the second objective, he said.

The third objective is that around any new launch site, an industry cluster should come up to support manufacturing and launching small rockets and satellites. ”I believe the location of Kulasekarapattinam is apt for launching small satellites towards the south. It gives higher payload capability, enables a lower turnaround time for the launch, with at least 20-30 launches should take place, and will help increase the production of satellite launches. An industry cluster should also come in due course, he said.

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