Chandrayaan-2 Mission: Achievements of Indian Research Space Organization
Special Correspondent (Bengaluru): Space odyssey ISRO started in1969 and within six years Indian Space Research Organization launched India’s first satellite Aryabhatta into space. Since than ISRO has set many milestones with a few setbacks.
On 7 September, around 1.52 am hundreds od ISRO scientist and Indians were glued to their television. India achieved two milestones and missed by a bristle.
‘Mission Chandrayaan-2’ is a great mission to reach the moon’s south pole. India reached moon for two times. The chandrayaan-1 hard landing was done in 2008. Chandrayaan-2 missed only rover soft landing on the moon’s surface. Vikram landed on the moon but not as per ISRO planning.
ISRO lost contact with Vikram at the last movement when it was just 2.1 km far away from the moon. It is not confirmed the status of Vikram on the moon. Apart from this mission, ISRO has set milestones since it has started in 1969.
Size of countries based on their satellites launched by ISRO
| 11-20 | UK, Germany |
| 5-10 | Singapore, South Korea |
| 1-4 | Malaysia Slovakia Kazakhstan Argentina Turkey Algeria Switzerland France Israel Lithuania Finland Belgium Italy Austria Luxembourg Netherland Japan Indonesia Norway Colombia Lativia Spain UAE Demark Chile Australia |
| 10-20 | Canada |
| More than 150 | USA |
ISRO said, “Efforts to establish contact with it are on and data is being analyzed, Vikram has located on the moon but it is found in the tilted position.”
If ISRO had successfully soft-land the lander Vikram, India would be in one of the leading countries. Orbiters are launched successfully and moving around the moon continuously. Most of the experiments are scheduled from the orbiter, not on Vikram, the lander.
People will remember the 7th of September in honor to discover new zone in space exploration.
ISRO has achieved many milestones in the journey of five decades. Isro scientists may achieve success to reach the moon next year when it will complete 50 years.
Satellites launched over the years
With the help of Soviet Space Agency ISRO launched the first satellite of India in the year of on 19 April 1975. Aryabhatta has a lifespan of six months with a weight of 360 Kg. It was ISRO’s ‘one small step, one giant leap’ moment.
In this period ISRO launched 105 India Satellites, developed India’s independent launch system, reached out the moon two times, sent spacecraft orbiting Mars, sent 297 satellites of 33 different countries, 10 satellites are designed by Indian students.
Foreign Satellites Launched by ISRO
ISRO has carried out the launch of 75 satellites, out of them only 8 were not successfully launched. Two satellites launched successfully but failed in orbit. Chandrayaan-2 was the most sophisticated mission taken over by ISRO, in terms of complexity.Chandrayaan-1 reached the moon but landed hard with the crush.
Student’s Satellites Launched by ISRO
| Name | Institute | Date | Mass |
| SWAYAM | College of Engineering, Pune | Jun 22, 2016 | 1kg |
| STUDSAT | Collaboration of 7 colleges from Bengaluru | Jul 12, 2010 | Less than 1 kg |
| SRMSat | SRM University | Oct 12, 2011 | 10.9 kg |
| SATHYABAMASAT | Sathyabama University, Chennai | Jun 22, 2016 | 1.5 kg |
| PRATHAM | IIT, Bombay | Sep 26, 2016 | 10 kg |
| PISAT | PES University, Bengaluru | Sep 26, 2016 | 5.25 kg |
| NIUSAT | Noorul Isalm University | Jun 23, 2017 | 15 kg |
| Kalamsat-V2 | Isro | Jan 24, 2019 | 1.26 kg |
| Jugnu | IIT, Kanpur | Oct 12, 2011 | 3 kg |
| ANUSAT | Anna University | Apr 20, 2009 | 40 kg |
As Isro embarks on its journey to explore new frontiers, next on its radar is the ambitious ‘mission Gaganyaan’ which plans to send three Indian into space by 2022.
What exactly happened with Vikram in those final moments on September 7 will be known in due course, but the journey of experimentation and exploration at Isro continues…
