General
Chandrayaan-3: Hello Superpowers, India Is On The Moon!
India is on the moon. With those five words, ISRO chairman S Somanath summed up the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, a longdrawn journey scripted by its dedicated scientists, unmindful of the recent setback to Chandrayaan-2. As the sun rose over the moon’s South Pole, the Vikram Lander, with Pragyan in its belly, gently touched on the Moon’s surface kicking up lunar dust and kick-starting a new chapter in what could be the beginning of a space odyssey to Mars, the sun and the space beyond. Responding to over a million prayers of Indians all over the world, Vikram held its nerve in what is described as ‘20 minutes of terror’ and landed flawlessly in the unchartered South Pole, making India the first country to leave its footprints in the area and the fourth nation after the US, Russia and China to land on the lunar surface.
It was a nail-biting moment at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru when at around 5.25 pm the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS) was initiated, leaving Vikram to its own maneuvers in the final touchdown. The scientists broke into a huge applause hugging each other, crying in joy as the world cheered India’s achievement in taking within its embrace the ‘khoya khoya chand and the khula aasman.’
PM Modi celebrates the moment
Celebrating the moment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in Johannesburg in South Africa, said the moon landing is the dawn of a new era. “India will not stop on the moon. The new era of confidence and belief will take us beyond,” he said, adding that the Aditya L1 mission to the Sun and the human space mission, Gaganyaan, are next in the pipeline. Coming back to the Chandrayaan-3, at around 5 pm, the first of the series of the final commands emanated from Bengaluru, telling the ALS to take over and begin its four-phase descent towards the moon’s surface.
Highly controlled and powered descent
In a highly controlled and powered descent, closely monitored by the orbiting propulsion modules – Chandrayaan-2 and 3 — Vikram lander took its final steps, hurtling towards the moon’s surface at a velocity of 1.68 km per second, which is nearly 6048 km per hour – almost ten times the velocity of an airplane. Moments later, in the first phase, the Vikram lander slammed the brakes – called the rough braking phase — by firing its engines for about 11.5 minutes. Next came the fine braking phase when Vikram was made to further slow down and shift to a vertical mode to face the moon’s surface. This was the phase when the lander during the Chandrayaan-2 launch went out of control and crashed on the moon’s surface. At 800 meters above the Moon’s surface, both the horizontal and vertical velocities were reduced to zero giving Vikram 10 seconds to survey the landing strip. The lander was then made to go down further and hover once at 150 meters, taking images of hazards in quest for the best landing site. It then touched down on the lunar surface with just two engines firing and its sturdy legs absorbing the impact of 3m/second or about 10.8 km per hour. Soon after the sensors on the legs felt the lunar surface, the engines immediately shut down marking the end of the 20-minutes of terror. Vikram’s landing was dramatic as it kicked up dust, which took over two hours to settle due to weak gravity on the moon.
Pragyaan rolled out
Once the dust settled down, the child in Vikram’s belly, the Pragyaan, rolled out to ‘play’ on the moon’s surface. The rover took its baby steps towards the Moon’s surface after remaining in deep slumber for over 3.84 lakh km lasting 40 days. The big moment came when Vikram took images of the rover and Pragyaan responded by clicking images of the lander, the first ‘selfies’ clicked by India from the lunar surface. The lander and rover are both solar powered and are made to last one lunar day – which is equal to 14 Earth days. In these 14 days, the Pragyaan would be actively sniffing for water. During the Lunar day, the solar panels would be charged so that when the sun rises again, work can begin again.
NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) played a key role, says ISRO Chief S Somanath
In India’s journey to the moon, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) played a key role, said Somanath in his comments. ‘‘We cannot track the mission in the shadow areas and it is here that other agencies would key in,’’ he added. ESA supported the lander during the entire phase of lunar surface operations, helping to ensure that science data acquired by the rover arrives safely with ISRO. ISRO operates a 32-metre deep space tracking station in Byalalu, in Karnataka, that enabled it to locate, track, command and receive telemetry and scientific data from its distant spacecraft. India is not going to stop on the moon. With all the cheers coming from all over and the team work of hundreds of scientists at ISRO, space would be an unchartered expanse waiting to be explored, and the endeavour is to tread where no man has gone before.
Maharashtra
There is no opposition to peaceful protests, but violence broke out during protests in Delhi, conspiracy to create unrest during protests: Devendra Fadnavis

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has made a serious allegation and termed the violence in the peaceful protest of the CJP at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar as a political agenda. He said that behind it, many political parties are trying to gain political benefits, while many sincere people are also involved, but the way violence was unleashed in this protest is completely wrong. Stone pelting on the police and breaking vehicles is absolutely not right. Fadnavis has also supported the action of the Delhi Police and said that the police have shown patience and restraint. Regarding the protest, Devendra Fadnavis has made it clear that everyone has the right to protest in the Constitution and democracy, but no one has the right to disrupt the situation by protesting without permission. If someone protests without permission or creates violence and tension, action will be taken against him. He said that some elements have also joined the JCP protest who have nothing to do with the protest, they are only involved in their own benefit and a conspiracy to create unrest in the country. Devendra Fadnavis has said that action is taken against protest demonstrations only when they are ready for violence or are part of a conspiracy. He said that no action is taken against those who protest with permission, while everyone has the right to protest and no one can be deprived of it. Fadnavis said that in the backdrop of the JCP protest, an attempt is being made to spoil the situation, which is intolerable. He added that everyone has seen what happened in Delhi and how violence was unleashed here. Along with this, the police have also taken action against the protest demonstrations in Maharashtra and Mumbai, while Fadnavis has also supported the police action against the protesters.
Maharashtra
Abu Asim Azmi demands resignation of Education Minister and Supreme Court intervention regarding police action on paper leak

Mumbai: MLA Abu Asim Azmi has hit out at the central government, supporting its aggressive stance on the paper leak scandal. He has demanded the immediate resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Azmi expressed disappointment that unlike Lal Bahadur Shastri, who voluntarily resigned after taking moral responsibility for a railway accident, this government is refusing to accept any accountability despite the suicide of several students. Azmi praised Sonam Wangchuck and said that she has started this fight for the future of students and has gone on a 20-day hunger strike to protest against the shortcomings in the country’s education system. However, he termed the Delhi Police’s actions of resorting to lathicharge and tear gas against her as extremely shameful. Recalling the words of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia – “When the streets become silent, Parliament becomes independent”, Azmi said that Parliament is not in a listening mood at the moment. At such a time, citizens have every right to peacefully take to the streets and raise their voice against injustice and the government as per the constitution given by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. Alleging that democracy has ended in the country and a dictatorship-like situation has emerged, MLA Abu Asim Azmi has demanded the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of the police action and ill-treatment meted out to Sonam Wangchuck and direct that cases be registered against those responsible.
Maharashtra
Protest in support of Shivaji Park students, three separate FIRs registered against Shiv Sena UBT in multiple cases, restraining order issued in Mumbai

Mumbai: Police has claimed to have registered a case against Shiv Sena UBT for holding an unauthorized protest at Shivaji Park in Mumbai demanding the resignation of Sonam Wangchuck and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Mumbai Police has registered three separate FIRs in this matter, including gathering a crowd at Shivaji Park without permission and ignoring the police appeal by camping in the ground even after the protest. In this case, the police has registered an FIR against the organizers. The second FIR is for creating a traffic problem by gathering students and protesters at Shivaji Park without any permission and the third FIR is for gathering students in Dadar and jamming the traffic. No one has been arrested in this case so far.
A protest demonstration was held at Shivaji Park under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, during which a flood of protesters had gathered. In such a situation, the police also gave the protesters a message of a peaceful march after the protest demonstration. At the same time, arguments were made with the police, but the protesters were not ready to leave the ground, so the anti-riot squad was also deployed here. While Uddhav Thackeray, while addressing the student protest demonstration, criticized the government and said that the government has time to discuss Pakistan but cannot discuss Sonam Wangchuck.
Mumbai Police has registered three FIRs in the case of illegal morcha and rally, this has been confirmed by the Mumbai Police. Meanwhile, in view of the protest demonstration by the Kakroj Janata Party in Delhi, an alert has also been issued in Mumbai. A prohibitory order has been imposed in Mumbai from July 23 to August 6, in which the gathering of more than five people has been banned, while cremation grounds, funerals and weddings, including official and non-official ceremonies, have been exempted from it. This order has been issued by DCP Operation Akbar Pathan.
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