Celebrations at visitors’ gallery as Chandrayaan-3 takes off

44-year-old Amit Deshpande and four of his friends drove about 1,100 km from Pune with two overnight stops, including one in Bengaluru, just to watch Chandrayaan-3 soar into the skies from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) here on Friday afternoon.

Shashank, a software engineer from Bengaluru, woke up at 3 am to be at the wheels for about six hours to reach Sriharikota, while 55 students from Government First Grade College in Tumakuru took off from classes to watch India’s third unmanned mission to the moon.

Likewise, thousands of students from across the country, including from far away Delhi and Noida, waited patiently for hours together under the blazing Sun to witness the “proud moment” from the new Visitors' gallery at the SDSC.

Also Read: Soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 planned at 5:47 pm on August 23, says ISRO chief

CISF personnel and Andhra Pradesh Police had a tough time due to a traffic snarl on the nearly 2 km distance from the entrance of the SDSC to the Visitors’ Gallery, which was teeming with people.

Holding national flags to display their patriotism and umbrellas to get respite from the Sun, children, men, and women alike cheered as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft blasted off exactly at 2.35 pm. Before coming to the gallery, the students and people took pictures near the models of the spacecraft and went around the Space Museum.

“This was the moment we came to watch all the way from Pune,” Deshpande told DH as Sunil Kulkarni looked on. Kulkarni is the brain behind the group of five travelling by road as he didn’t want to miss the third lunar mission after having watched the previous two in person.

“After seeing the enthusiasm here and hearing about the successful launch, our tiredness has gone away. We are so happy to watch thick plumes of smoke in the sky with a huge sound,” Deshpande said, adding that they drove in a Tata Hexa from Pune. “We believe in being vocal for local,” Kulkarni says, referring to the vehicle made by home-grown Tata Motors.

The group expressed the hope that the spacecraft will land on the moon next month, with almost everyone expressing similar sentiments.

A few metres away, Shashank and his friends were busy looking for seats to witness the launch. “We took a day’s off. We decided to watch the launch as Sriharikota isn’t very far from Bengaluru. And it is a welcome break from looking at the computer constantly. Yes, we are proud to be Indians,” he said.

Umesh and his friends took a bus from Tumakuru by pooling money to reach Sriharikota. “We wanted to see the launch from Sriharikota. That is all we wanted, and we are here,” he said, before the entire group posed for a picture and a selfie.

Balaadithya and Kushal Sai Venkat from Vasishta School in Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh were engrossed in a deep conversation. “We hope the ISRO will be successful this time. Last time, they failed at the last minute, but I think Chandrayaan-3 will be successful,” Balaadithya said.

When this correspondent asked the students the reason for the previous mission’s failure, pat came the reply from Venkat. “The lander failed at the last moment. But this time, the ISRO has made modifications,” he said.

“How do you know this?” was the question. “We read in newspapers,” the students said in a chorus. For Agraram Solanki and his classmates from Delhi Public School, Noida, the Chandrayaan-3 launch was also an opportunity to visit Chennai and Puducherry as their school took them to a short picnic before bringing them to Sriharikota.

“We enjoyed the beaches in Puducherry and were happy to be here. We were excited and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we are just happy,” he said.