Last Saturday, 7th Sept the entire world was watching with bated breath for Chandrayaan 2 to make its final approach and attempt a soft landing at the Moon’s south pole. This was the first time that I remember where even the lay person knew about this attempt and everyone was eagerly waiting for the landing. In this post I am going to talk about the project, people’s reaction to it, and my thoughts. As always all thoughts are mine and not my employer’s. Also, the idea is not to offend/argue with people but to talk about my thoughts on the project and evolution of our space program and some commentary on the reactions to the attempt that we saw.
ISRO was founded in 1969 and put its first satellite, Aryabhata in orbit in 1975. After that over the years things started speeding up at ISRO but it was hardly ever in the public eye. In 2008 ISRO sent a lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1 to the moon which was the first probe to discover the presence of water in the form of ice on the Moon. However I don’t remember reading or hearing anything about it in the Media.I only found out about the fact that it was the first one to detect water on the moon when I was researching about Chandrayaan 2. There was minimal coverage for the achievement and ISRO continued chugging along without making waves. When it’s Mangalyaan achieved Mars orbit in 2014 making India the first Asian country to reach Mars the Indian media’s reaction was again quite muted. There were a few articles in the papers and minor coverage on TV. International media was also quite dismissive with several articles making fun of the achievement and asking why India was bothering to pay for a Mars mission when people were starving in the country. Over the decades we have gone from hitching rides in foreign rockets to launching 104 satellites on a single rocket on 15 February 2017 which was a world record and it still stands. This makes India the prime choice for countries wanting to put satellites in orbit bringing much needed foreign currency/business to India. Even in 2017 there was some coverage of the achievement but mostly in specialized sites focused on Space etc and not so much in the traditional media. My sis Surabhi and her family went to Sri Harikota to watch the launch and getting the information on how to watch the launch in person was a painful process and required us to find personal contact in ISRO to get permission.
Now in 2019, the situation is so much different that its like night and day, the process is very different and there is an actual observation gallery at ISRO launch site and people are encouraged to watch launches. (I was actually planning on going in person for Chandrayaan 2 launch but was traveling during the launch and couldn’t make it). During the runup to the launch I saw multiple posts about it in social media, in the newspapers and on TV. The launch was carried live on multiple TV channels and there was a dedicated media campaign to publicize the launch. ISRO and the government used this opportunity to get school children excited about space and show them the possibilities. I watched the launch live on Twitter in office and when the rocket took off successfully the mood was quite celebratory. Even on social media you could see the outpouring of love and pride in ISRO and India during and after the launch.
On Saturday when Chandrayaan 2 was supposed to attempt a landing it was late at night but almost everyone I knew was awake and watching this historic attempt. My 7 year old Nephew and 4 year old niece was amongst the watches as well even though it was way past their bed time. Vinit took a pic of them watching and you can see how sleepy they both are but still refusing to go to sleep.
Unfortunately in the last mile (2.1kms) above the surface ISRO lost contact with the lander and we could see how tense and worried the staff at mission control was and how professionally they tried everything possible to reestablish contact. The anchor on National Geographic (sorry can’t remember his name) was almost in tears when we realized that there was a high probability that the attempt had failed.
ISRO chief K Sivan was understandably choked up when he made the formal announcement “This is Mission Control Centre. Vikram Lander descent was as planned and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km. Subsequently, communication from lander to the ground stations was lost. Data is being analyzed.”. PM Modi was there on site for the landing and he consoled the scientists saying “Don’t lose hope. Be courageousâ€. The next morning at 8am PM Modi was back at ISRO and commended the scientists at ISRO and was positive & supportive in his speech (extracts below):
“Friends I could feel what you were going through a few hours back, your eyes were conveying a lot. You live for India’s honour, I salute you”
“To our scientists, I want to say India is with you. Your hard work and efforts ensure a better life for citizens and nation. It was your zeal that several people had access to a better life, better education and health facilities. There will be more opportunities to rejoice and pride”.
“You are exceptional professionals who have made an incredible contribution to national progress. You have always given your best. We will give you several more opportunities to smile,”
At this point K Sivan broke down in tears and PM Modi can be seen hugging and consoling Sivan in a now viral video/photo. Across the globe people commended his action and noted that his hug was on behalf of a grateful nation.
Unfortunately, we have people in the world who believe in toxic masculinity and think that any display of emotion by a guy is shameful. This was the view of Gaurav Pandhi who posted:
I know. A person who can’t control his/her emotions and cries at the time of crisis can’t be fit to lead a team; more so for someone who is heading ISRO, India’s premier space agency.
— Gaurav Pandhi गौरव पांधी (@GauravPandhi) September 7, 2019I was expecting better temperament from the @ISRO chairman. Failures happen and are stepping stones for the success ahead. ISRO’s achievements and efforts are applauded by the entire world. A man of his stature crying like a baby because of shortfalls looks idiotic to me.
— Gaurav Pandhi गौरव पांधी (@GauravPandhi) September 7, 2019
Sivan was the consummate professional while the crises was going on, he coordinated with all the relevant parties to reestablish contact and only after it was clear that nothing else could be done immediately he allowed his heartbreak to show and gave in to tears. When you spend a decade of your life on a project and invest your heart and soul into it, its quite natural to want to cry when faced with failure. If he had started crying during the crises and not worked to resolve it, I would have felt differently but in this case he worked through his heartbreak and then broke down after the immediate crises was over. I feel sad that people still think that its unmanly to cry. It is a stupid stereotype that causes a lot of harm.
But I am happy to state that the internet didn’t take kindly to Gaurav’s statement and immediately people (both men and women) posted messages supporting Sivan and condemning Gaurav’s statement. I haven’t checked if he recanted but I doubt that it would happen. (Please correct me if I am wrong here). Majority of India and the world also supported ISRO during this time and posts/comments commending the effort and praising the scientists poured in from all over the world. The general attitude was that yes we failed this time but will be back stronger than ever and succeed in our next attempt. It would have been great if the same was true for our political leaders but that wasn’t the case and case in point is Mamta Banerjee, who couldn’t resist bringing politics into the picture and said in a statement:
“It is as if Chandrayaan launch is the first such happening in the country. As if before they came to power, no such missions were taken up. It is an attempt to divert attention from the economic disaster,”
Thankfully, she is in the minority and most political leaders read the nation’s mood correctly and are supportive in public. The twitter trolls also couldn’t resist pitching in either and I saw a few posts to the effect that Modi was only there to take credit and blah blah blah. One comment that caught my eye just because of the sheer nonsense in it, was from someone named Atul who posted:
@atul_aga: He came to take credit.
He was informed that Vikam’s landing is failed.
Got annoyed and returned to his hotel.
Next morning again he returns with his camera crew to do theatrics to steal the show.
Many so called liberals melted for his drama.
Mission successful.
If Modi attended the launch it was to take credit, if he hadn’t then it was because he was not giving the ISRO folks enough importance. If he went back to his hotel it was because he was annoyed, never mind the fact that there was nothing for him to do at that time. ISRO was still working on reestablishing contact, all sitting there in the mission control would have accomplished would have been to put extra pressure on the folks trying to work. When he consoled the ISRO staff, promised support for the next attempt and told them how proud the nation was of their effort it was a “PR stuntâ€. Just because historically Indian politicians have not been around or supportive when their nation take a literal moon-shot doesn’t mean that we pull down the one person who made the effort. If you think this is grandstanding, please look up videos of Obama, Nixon, and other world leaders who were with the staff when they attempted to reach the impossible and supported them when they faltered.
Bringing politics into this is shameful, this was something that India did and as someone commented, “India is the brain behind the mission but it is on behalf of all humans”. We need to come out of our cocoon and look at a world outside of politics and pulling Modi down.
In any case, as of today it looks like Vikram survived the landing and is in one piece. But we still don’t have connectivity with the lander and efforts are ongoing to reestablish contact. Even if we don’t the orbiter is still functional and 95% of the experiments planned for the mission are aboard the orbiter and will proceed as planned.
In conclusion, I am happy how the general public is supporting ISRO in this time and how many people are getting motivated to go into science or space after watching this historic attempt. Hoping for the best here’s to ISRO, the nation salutes you.
– Suramya