Solar mission 'Aditya' to be ready for launch in September: ISRO chief

BENGALURU: As the country rejoiced the successful placement of the ISRO lander - Vikram - on the moon's uncharted South Pole, the agency's chairman S Somanath on Thursday confirmed that its maiden solar mission 'Aditya' is in the works and will be ready for launch in September.

In a brief address to the nation after the lander touched down on the moon's dark side on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi alluded to future missions to the Sun and Venus.

A day after the ISRO put India in an elite club of nations with the successful conduct of its maiden lunar landing mission, the ISRO chief said, "Mission 'Aditya' is on the works and will be ready for launch in the first week of September. We are also planning a mission by the end of September or October to demonstrate our crew module and crew escape capability, which will be followed by many test missions until we launch our first manned mission to space (Gaganyaan), possibly by 2025."

On the flawless touchdown of the Vikram lander on the moon's south face, Somanath said the gamut of emotions he ran as the lander closed in on the lunar surface was hard to put in words. "It was a mix of joy, a feeling of accomplishment and gratefulness for all fellow scientists, who contributed to the success of this mission," Somanath said.

He added that the moon's South Pole has the potential for human settlement, which is why the agency made it the preferred landing site for the lander.

"We have gone closer to the (lunar) South Pole, which lies almost 70 degrees from where the lander has been placed. The South Pole has a specific advantage with respect to being less illuminated by the Sun. There is potential (for human settlement) because of more scientific content (on the south side of the moon). The scientists, who were working on this project, showed a lot of interest in the South Pole as the larger objective is for human beings to set up colonies on the moon and travel beyond. We were looking for the best landing spot, where we could set up colonies in the distant future, and the lunar South Pole fitted the bill," the ISRO chief said.

After a 40-day journey into space, the Vikram lander touched down on the lunar South Pole on Wednesday evening. India also became only the fourth nation after the US, Russia and China to successfully conduct a lunar landing mission. ANI

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