Giggles of success as Chandrayaan gets closer to Moon

What followed the thunderous roar of the huge rocket carrying Chandrayaan-3 as it soared into the sky on Friday afternoon was not just awe and applause but some lighter moments too.

The podium at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre spaceport's Mission Control Centre, from where some of the most memorable and famous achievements of ISRO have been announced, saw those at the podium and the gathering behind and in front of it briefly burst into raptures.

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Soon after Chandrayaan-3 successfully separated from the LVM3-M4 rocket, ISRO Chairman S Somanath got on the podium and said "Congratulations India." Seated behind the ISRO Chairman was Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for the Department of Space and Department of Atomic Energy, along with a whole host of government representatives, visiting delegations and several other senior officials.

"Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey towards the Moon," Somanath continued. "LVM3 has already put Chandrayaan-3 into the precise orbit around Earth. It is precisely in the intended orbit now. Let us wish all the best to the Chandrayaan-3 craft to make its further orbit racing manoeuvres and travel towards the Moon in the coming days..." he said and wound up his quick address.

He then introduced the leaders of the Chandrayaan-3 team -- Mission Director S Mohan Kumar and Project director P Veeramuthuvel.

"Over to them," said Somanath and invited Mohan Kumar to the microphone even as he seemed to be looking at his watch, an obvious indication of the paucity of time.

As soon as Kumar began his address, the chairman was seen looking at his watch and prompting something by coming closer to Kumar, who hurriedly acknowledged the information that was being passed on. "I am very happy to report that the LVM3-M4 vehicle has injected Chandrayaan -3 satellite into the precise orbit...and once again the vehicle has proved to be the most reliable heavy lift vehicle of ISRO," began Kumar.

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By this time, the ISRO chairman had already made two quick trips behind the podium towards the dignitaries and was back in position standing next to Kumar who was continuing his address.

Kumar went on, "I would like to apprise three things here: the vehicle systems are in the continuous process of quality improvement, especially in the event of our human rating efforts towards making the systems reliable. "Secondly, capability of the payload was also improved by mission strategies as well as vehicle engineering approaches. We are in the process of increasing the launch frequency of this vehicle, considering the national requirements as well as satellite demand."

Things began to go hilariously off track just when Kumar began about the developments that had been incorporated in the launch vehicle: "Vikas Engine...mostly it is 100 per cent qualified to be the human-rated engine with... the backward gas entry is also eliminated and it is a perfect..."

At this point the ISRO chairman standing to Kumar's left, smiled and interjected. He went close to Kumar and said something. Kumar immediately cracked up and the chairman beside him burst into laughter too. The gathering at the Mission Control Centre was in splits as well. Kumar tried to continue his address amid all the laughter and then seemed to give up. He looked at the chairman and broke into an uncontrollable burst of laughter.

The ISRO chairman then stepped in to save his mission director's day by holding the latter over his shoulders from behind. Somanath took the microphone and said, "So we will describe all those details later because of a shortage of time..." Kumar, by then, composed himself to make a final attempt at completing his speech and did so by thanking all the mission executives, members of his team, and everyone who contributed to the launch of Chandrayaan-3.