Here's What Elon Musk And Jeff Bezos Said Ahead Of Chandrayaan-3 Moon Landing

ISRO's ambitious Chandrayaan-3 mission has been on a journey to the Moon since its launch on July 14.

According to the space agency, Chandrayaan 3's Vikram lander, with the Pragyan rover accommodated inside it, is expected to touch down on the surface of the Moon around 6.04 pm on Wednesday.

Billionaire and owner of social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) Elon Musk has praised India.

Replying to a post which compared the budget of Chandrayaan-3 to the Hollywood film Interstellar, Musk wrote, "Good for India” with an emoji of the Indian tricolour.

"Kinda crazy when you realize India's budget for Chandrayaan-3 ($75M) is less than the film Interstellar ($165M),” the post by Newsthink said.

Jeff Bezos responded to a post by ISRO on Meta-owned Threads app and wrote, "Rooting for India! Good luck, Chandrayaan 3!"

Jeff Bezos owns the aerospace company Blue Origin.

ISRO in a post on X said it is all set to initiate the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS) for Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) to touch down on the lunar surface this evening.

"All set to initiate the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS). Awaiting the arrival of the Lander Module (LM) at the designated point, around 17:44 Hrs. IST (5:44 pm)," ISRO said.

After checking all the parameters and deciding to land, ISRO will upload the required commands from its Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) facility at Byalalu near Bengaluru to the LM, a few hours before the scheduled touchdown time.

ISRO Chairman S Somanath had recently said the most critical part of the landing will be the process of reducing the velocity of the lander from 30 km height to the final landing, and the ability to reorient the spacecraft from horizontal to vertical direction.

"This is the trick we have to play here," he said.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.

The ISRO in a statement said that "India's pursuit of space exploration reaches a remarkable milestone with the impending Chandrayaan-3 Mission, poised to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface."

This achievement marks a significant step forward for Indian Science, Engineering, Technology, and Industry, symbolising our nation's progress in space exploration, the space agency said.

(With PTI inputs)