The thrills around the final descent of Chandrayaan-3

Days ahead of Chandrayaan-3’s scheduled soft-landing on the moon, social media equated the final descent of the landing module to the death overs of a thrilling game of cricket.

On Wednesday, when the module – carrying lander Vikram and rover Pragyan – commenced the final leg of its journey, the media viewing area at the ISTRAC campus in Peenya resembled a gallery of tense fans, vocally hopeful but not totally unmindful of a potentially bleak climactic twist.

“Performance, so far, nominal” – the announcement eased the nerves. On the screen, the narrators detailed the landing module’s descent through its four phases – in Hindi and English – as the mood got progressively cheerful in the campus.

Every announcement of a reduction in the lander module’s altitude and velocity was cheered. The touchdown set off wild celebrations, drowning the commentary and the initial bits of Isro chairman S Somanath’s formal announcement of the mission’s success.

Soon, there were Bharat mata ki jai chants and Isro personnel gathered outside the viewing area to celebrate. Senior officials joined in and congratulated each other.

An hour after the touchdown, outside of the campus, men were still waving the Tricolour and distributing sweets to members of media teams.