Chandrayaan-3: Millions watch ISRO’s live stream, break viewership records
Over nine million concurrent users were watching the YouTube live stream of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) when Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module was about to make its landing on the lunar soil. At 6.03 pm on Wednesday, August 23, the Lander was on the lunar soil, making India the fourth country to reach the moon and the first to soft-land near the moon’s south pole. Chandrayaan-3 landed after travelling about 3.84 lakh km for over 40 days.
The mission was broadcast live across news channels with interchanging visuals of the scientists of ISRO watching it on a big screen. Just as Chandrayaan-3 was about to land, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared on the screens, joining live from South Africa. When the Lander finally touched down on the moon, scientists erupted into applause and laughter while the PM was seen waving the national flag.
A report in Firstpost says that the ISRO live stream has broken the world record of Spanish internet celebrity and streamer Ibai, becoming the most watched live stream of recent times.
The expectations of the mission have been building up for the past few weeks after Chandrayaan-3 was launched by India’s biggest rocket, the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3), from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14. The Lander completed orbiting around the Earth and headed towards the moon on August 1. The excitement reached its peak on August 23, when Chandrayaan-3 was moments away from making the first historic 'step' onto the moon's dusty-grey 'Earth'. The 19 minutes of suspense and excitement began at 5.45 pm, as planned earlier, and ended at 6.03 pm with the Lander touching the lunar soil.
Besides the scientific and academic fraternity, the thrill also permeated down to students, commoners, and lovers of science, who watched the live stream from different places and left congratulatory comments in ISRO’s YouTube comment box.
With the landing, a major portion of the Rs 600 crore Chandrayaan-3 mission has been realised. The remaining task at hand is related to the moon rover rolling down from the Lander. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprises a propulsion module, a lander, and a rover. With the Lander successfully touching the moon, the rover will slide down from a ramp deployed by the Lander and begin to move on the surface of the moon using its wheels.
India's first Moon mission, Chandrayaan-1 was launched in October 2008, followed by Chandrayan-2 in July 2019.
(With inputs from IANS)