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India's First National Space Day
Context
India is celebrating its inaugural National Space Day on August 23, 2024, to mark the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s Vikram Lander on the Moon’s southern polar region. This achievement is significant as India became the first country to land in this uncharted region and the fourth overall to achieve a lunar landing. The occasion is commemorated with the theme "Touching Lives while Touching the Moon: India's Space Saga".
About Chandrayaan-3
- Chandrayaan-3, developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), successfully landed the Vikram Lander and the Pragyaan Rover on the Moon.
- This mission not only accomplished a soft landing but also made India the first nation to land on the Moon's southern polar region, highlighting India's growing capabilities in space exploration.
Major Space Missions and Achievements
- Aditya-L1: This mission aims to study the Sun from the first Earth-Sun Lagrange point (L1), a stable point in space that allows continuous observation of the Sun. Aditya-L1 reached L1 and has been conducting observations, including the study of a solar storm that occurred in May 2024.
- Gaganyaan TV-D1: As part of the Gaganyaan human spaceflight program, this mission tested the Crew Escape System (CES) of the spacecraft.
- The test demonstrated the CES’s ability to safely separate from the test vehicle, protect the crew module, and ensure it decelerates effectively before splashing down into the Bay of Bengal.
- The crew module was successfully recovered by the Indian Navy vessel INS Shakthi.
- XPoSat: The X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) was launched to study the polarization of X-ray radiation. This mission aims to enhance our understanding of various cosmic sources of radiation.
- XPoSat is India’s second X-ray polarimeter satellite, following NASA’s IPEX launched in 2021.
- It carries two main instruments: XSPECT and POLIX, which began operations shortly after the launch.
- INSAT-3DS: This meteorological satellite was launched to test the capabilities of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
- INSAT-3DS plays a crucial role in validating the GSLV before the critical launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, scheduled for early 2025.
- RLV-TD: The Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV-TD), specifically the Pushpak variant, underwent two landing experiments.
- These tests simulated the vehicle’s landing from space, with one test dropping the vehicle along its intended landing path and another offset by 500 meters.
- These tests are pivotal for developing reusable launch vehicles for future space missions.
- SSLV: The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) successfully launched the EOS-08 and SR-0 Demosat satellites into orbit.
- This mission concluded the development phase of the SSLV, which is now ready for commercial use. EOS-08 includes payloads for earth observation in the infrared range and other advanced technologies.
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