India's Chandrayaan Journey

India embarked on its historic space journey with the successful launch of Chandrayaan-3. Here is a quick summary of India’s Chandrayaan journey.

Chandrayaan-1 was the first spacecraft sent by India to the Moon. It was like a special robot that went to explore the Moon and tell us more about it. Chandrayaan-1 had many special instruments and cameras to take pictures and collect information. It discovered something amazing—it found water on the Moon! It also looked for different things like minerals and elements. Chandrayaan-1 was launched into space in 2008 and it stayed near the Moon for about a year before finishing its mission.

Chandrayaan-2 was the second mission sent by India to the Moon in 2019. It was even more special because it had a lander and a rover. The lander was supposed to gently touch down on the Moon's surface, and then the rover would come out and explore around. But unfortunately, something went wrong during the landing, and the lander lost contact with the scientists on Earth. However, the orbiter part of Chandrayaan-2, which was like a big satellite going around the Moon, is still working and sending us information.

Now, there's Chandrayaan-3, which is the next mission that India has planned. It's like a new version of Chandrayaan-2, but this time they decided not to have an orbiter. Instead, they will focus on sending a lander and a rover to the Moon's surface. The scientists have learned from the previous missions and made improvements to make sure the landing goes smoothly. Chandrayaan-3 has launched today, July 14, 2023, and if everything goes well, it will reach the Moon and start exploring on 23 August 2023. If successful, the ambitious endeavour will make India, the only fourth nation to have accomplished the challenging task after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China.

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