• By Mayukh Debnath
  • Thu, 24 Aug 2023 08:19 AM (IST)
  • Source:JND

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday (August 23, 2023) created history as it became the first space agency to successfully land a lunar probe on the Moon's South Pole. With this, India also became the fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon, after the US, Russia (erstwhile USSR), and China.

The latest feat by ISRO displayed not only the space agency's technical competence, but also its ability to achieve unprecedented milestones without burning a hole in the pocket.

According to former ISRO chairman K Sivan, Chandrayaan-3 cost the exchequer Rs 615 crore (nearly $75 million). The approved cost of Chandrayaan-3 was Rs 250 crore, excluding the cost of the launch vehicle, Union Minister Jitendra Singh had informed the Rajya Sabha. This puts the estimated cost of the LMV3 payload carrier, used by ISRO to launch the Chandrayaan-3, at around Rs 365 crore.

The total budget earmarked for the lunar exploration mission is considerably less than its predecessor, Chandrayaan-2, which could not succeed in establishing India's presence on the Moon. The second edition in India's lunar probe series, the mission incurred a total cost of Rs 970 crore (approximately USD 117 million), as per the information provided by the Centre. However, the mission, the government said, managed to accomplish most of its objectives.

To further put things in perspective and demonstrate how cost-efficient ISRO's latest moon probe has been so far, Russia's Luna-25, which ended as a failure, cost roughly USD200 million. The mission concluded last week after its lander module crash landed on the lunar south polar region, where ISRO's 'Vikram' accomplished a soft landing on Wednesday.

The third edition of ISRO's Chandryaan mission series has a threefold objective: to demonstrate a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface; to demonstrate the maneuvering of the Pragyan rover on the moon; and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.