I had no worries: ISRO chief Somanath reflects on Chandrayaan-3's flawless landing

ISRO Chairman S Somanath recalled the flawless touchdown of Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar South Pole on August 23 and said that it was destined to land perfectly. Speaking exclusively to Republic, Somanath reflected on the landing and the preparations to ensure the success of India's third Moon mission. 

"Going to Moon and landing there is not an easy task. So for such missions we do all those preparations, which were done for Chandrayaan-2 as well. But this time... it is something extraordinary," Somanath said. 

"It was four years of hardwork to understand what went wrong. Then a lot of corrective actions and hundreds of tests and all the data we analysed, understood and made modifications and improvements and finally made the craft for Chandrayaan-3," he further stated.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on of the Chandrayaan-2, which launched on July 22, 2019. The Vikram lander landed at 6:04 pm IST, making India the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon and the first to touch down near the South Pole. 

'I was very confident, had no worries'

The ISRO chief said that he personally was very confident that Vikram will make a perfect landing on the Moon since all the plans were in place. "Once you have done the work and confidence has been built, why should you worry about it? It has to perform. That is what engineering and science is. More than that, we have taken care of any possible failures by mitigation mechanisms," Somanath said. 

"So we were very confident. Personally, I was very confident. I had no worries about it," he further said. 

'Some instruments were not put to use'

The Chandrayaan-3 lander was equipped with new instruments like the Lander Hazard Detection & Avoidance Camera (LHDAC) and Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) to avoid the fate that Chandrayaan-2 met with. However, Somanath said that they weren't used at all during Vikram's landing. 

"None of these instruments were actually put to use. The LHDAC or Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) nothing really was demanded because the entire mission was so nominal that it was running on the inertial platform. And it can actually do the landing perfectly," Somanath said. 

"So really it was not warranted or called for because there was no anomaly on board. It was so beautiful, it was destined to land perfectly," he added. 

'There are no financial constraints'

When asked about rumours of ISRO having financial constraints regarding its launch missions, Somanath rejected all claims, saying they always had what they needed. 

"There are no financial constraints. Whatever we asked, we got. So there is no doubt about it. But of course constraint during COVID was there. But that was for everybody not just the Department of Space alone," Somanath said. 

"But that is all over now. You can see what's happening in space sector. Number of launches increased and missions are going up," he further stated. 

About public-private partnership

The Indian space sector is witnessing an increased participation of private companies since the reforms and introduction of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN–SPACe). Speaking about their partnership with government-owned ISRO, Somanath said that the agency will assist the private firms until they build their capabilities to develop technologies for private missions. 

"What we are doing today are government-funded programmes. In the future, we would like to have the space programme moving over to the private companies," he said. Somanath also said that this has a deeper interest as the private participation will generate more revenue and employment. 

"Technology will be continued to be developed by ISRO as much as it can but in private (sector) also, the capacity will grow over a period of time. When the private capacity, technology development and R&D grows, of course, ISRO need not have to do. So up to that time, this organisation will have to support and survive," he further said. 

'Take pride in what you do'

Somanath also sent a message to the nation after the successful Chandrayaan-3 landing and shared his ambitions to send Indians into the space soon. 

"Take pride in what you are doing; it is very important. Because the confidence that you give out by this process that we can also achieve as much as the powerful nations have achieved, gives you hope that one day you will be able to do many more things as done by others," Somanath said. He also expressed his desire to send Indians to the Moon and create a "technology-based economy" in India.