Prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the government has drawn up a roadmap for the development of space sector and the day is not far when an Indian will travel to the moon in an indigenously built spacecraft. PM Modi said India’s Gaganyaan will soon take Indian astronauts to space and the India wants to establish its own space station.

PM Modi said a strong roadmap has been drawn till 2040 for the space sector. He made the announcement after flagging off the first Namo Bharat train on the 17 km stretch of the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit system.

PM Modi recalled the success of India’s moon mission Chandrayaan3  which had recently placed the country’s tricolour on the lunar surface. He said India of the 21^st century is writing new chapters of progress and development for the landing on the moon has left the world awestruck.

PM Modi added with impeccable hosting of the G20 summit, today’s India has become the centre of attraction and curiosity for the world. He said today’s India wins more than 100 medals in the Asian Games.

PM Modi added today’s India launches 5G on its own strength and takes it to all corners of India. He further added todays India does the highest number of digital transactions. He said the Namo trains that were flagged off today were all made in India.

PM Modi set goals for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) by asking engineers and scientists to work towards setting up an Indian space staion by 2035 and sending an Indian astronaut to the lunar surface by 2040. PM Modi also asked the scientists to undertake interplanetary missions like the Venus orbiter and also attempt a landing on Mars. PM Modi further added the government has handed over festival gifts by reducing the gas cylinder price by Rs 500 for Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries.  

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Friday postponed the plans to reactivate Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover to September 23.

After Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover soft landing on the South Pole of the Moon on August 24, both Vikram and Pragyan functioned effectively for a duration of 14 Earth days. The Rover was put on sleep mode on September 2, while the Lander was on September 4.

They were put on sleep mode for approximately 16 Earth days before the lunar night enveloped the south pole of the Moon.

Speaking on Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover, Nilesh Desai, Director of Space Application Centre said that earlier we planned to reactivate the Pragyan Rover and Vikram Lander on the evening of September 22, but due to some reasons we will do it on September 23, said Desai.

He further said a plan to take out the Lander and Rover from the sleep mode and reactivate it, adding that, we had a plan to move the Rover to almost 300 to 350 metres but due to some reasons, the Rover has moved 105 metres there.

In collaboration with MyGov, ISRO has invited the citizens to participate in the Chandrayaan-3 Mahaquiz. The step was taken with the motive to honour India’s amazing space exploration journey. This will help to explore the wonders of the moon and show our love and passion for science.  

In order to participate in the Chandrayaan-3 Mahaquiz, the participants would be required to create an account on the MyGov website. There is a cash prize for the winners and it also allows individuals to download the certificate.

Earlier, the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) instrument onboard the Pragyan rover also detected aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon and oxygen, as expected.

ISRO also shared a graph of the observation on X, illustrating the temperature variation of the lunar surface at various depths, as recorded during the probe’s penetration. 

The Indian Space Research Organisation said that the Aditya L1 spacecraft successfully underwent the fourth earth-bound manoeuvre on Friday. This is India’s first space-based mission to study the Sun.

ISRO took to X, formerly Twitter and informed that the fourth earth-bound manoeuvre (EBN4) was performed successfully. ISRO’s ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation, while a transportable terminal currently stationed in the Fiji islands for Aditya-L1 will support post-burn operations, the Indian space agency added.

ISRO further said that the new orbit attained is 256 km x 121973 km. The next manoeuvre Trans-Lagragean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I), a send-off from the Earth is scheduled for September 19, around 02:00 Hrs. IST, it added.

ISRO’s Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space-based mission, that will study the Sun from a halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L1). This is located approximately 1.5 million km from the planet Earth.

Earlier, all three earth-bound manoeuvres were successfully performed in September month.

During the spacecraft’s 16-day journey around the Earth, the manoeuvres were performed. During this time, the spacecraft will gain the necessary velocity for its further journey to L1.   

After completing the fourth earth-bound orbital manoeuvres, the ISRO’s Aditya L1 solar mission will further undergo a Trans-lagrangian1 insertion manoeuvre. This will mark the beginning of its nearly 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange point.

Another manoeuvre to bind Aditya L1 to an orbit near L1 after arrival at L1 point. This is to be a balanced gravitational location between the Sun and the Earth.

Around L1, the satellite will spend its whole mission life in an irregularly shaped orbit in a plane roughly perpendicular to the line joining the Sun and the Earth.

On September 2, the Aditya L1 spacecraft was successfully launched by ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) from the Second Launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota.  

The Aditya L1 was successfully injected into an elliptical orbit of 235×19500 km around the Earth after a flight duration of 1 hour 3 minutes and 20 seconds.