Business magnate Anand Mahindra on Sunday expressed his excitement for India’s third moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, as it inches closer to land on the lunar surface on Wednesday. The chairman of Mahindra Group said he will be watching, praying and cheering on the Chandrayaan-3 mission during its landing.

“August 23rd. 1745 IST. I’ll be watching. Praying. And cheering you on…” said Mahindra on X (formerly Twitter).

This is not the first time Mahindra has cheered for the country’s moon mission. In his earlier tweets, he defended the lunar exploration mission against the contrasting views on the money being spent on it. On August 3, retweeting a video by ISRO showing the moon as captured by Chandrayaan-3, Mahindra wrote, “There are a million technological and commercial benefits that justify the effort and expense on space exploration. But these images accomplish much more than that: they inspire in us the magic of discovery and exploration. Thank you, @isro for igniting our dreams.”

Chandrayaan-3 set to create history on August 23

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It consists of Lander and Rover configuration.

Upon completion of the mission, India will become the first country in the world to execute a soft landing of its rover on the moon’s south pole.

Chandrayaan 3 mission: Detailed timeline of key milestones

Here is a comprehensive timeline of significant developments in the Chandrayaan-3 mission up to the present, along with upcoming milestones in the coming days.

• July 6: ISRO announces the launch date for Mission Chandrayaan-3 as July 14 from Sriharikota’s second pad.

• July 7: Successful completion of vehicle electrical tests.

• July 11: Completion of a comprehensive 24-hour ‘Launch Rehearsal’ simulating the entire launch process.

• July 14: LVM3 M4 vehicle launches Chandrayaan-3 into its designated orbit.

• July 15: Successful execution of the first orbit-raising manoeuvre, achieving a 41762 km x 173 km orbit.

• July 17: Second orbit-raising manoeuvre places Chandrayaan-3 in a 41603 km x 226 km orbit.

• July 22: Fourth orbit-raising manoeuvre establishes the spacecraft in a 71351 km x 233 km orbit.

• July 25: Successful execution of another orbit-raising manoeuvre.

• August 1: Chandrayaan-3 inserted into translunar orbit (288 km x 369328 km).

• August 5: Successful lunar orbit insertion (164 km x 18074 km).

• August 6: Lowering of lunar orbit to 170 km x 4,313 km.

• August 9: ISRO carefully adjusts the spacecraft’s path to achieve a lunar orbit of 174 km x 1437 km.

• August 14: Chandrayaan-3 approaches the moon’s surface, reaching an orbit of 150 km x 177 km.

• August 16: The spacecraft performs its fifth and final Moon-bound manoeuvre, positioning itself in a near-circular Lunar orbit of 163 km x 153 km.

• August 17: Separation of the landing module, consisting of the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, from its propulsion system.

• August 18: Successful completion of a ‘deboosting’ operation, reducing the orbit to 113 km x 157 km.

• August 20: Planned final orbit adjustment is undertaken to achieve an orbit of 134 km x 25 km, representing the farthest and nearest points from the moon respectively.

• August 23: If all goes as planned, a lunar touchdown attempt is scheduled at 6:04 pm, covering the last 30 km distance.