US: Indian diaspora turn to religious rituals performs Havan in Virginia for successful landing of Chandrayaan-3

By Reena Bhardwaj
Virginia [US], July 23 : Indian Americans turn to religious rituals such as performing a ‘havan’ (fire ritual) and ‘Abhishekam’ in hopes of ensuring the success of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft’s lunar landing.
The members of Indian diaspora performed a havan at a temple in Virginia, US for the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon.
Chandrayaan-3 is all set to create history by landing on the uncharted south pole of Moon today.
According to ISRO, Chandrayaan-3 is all set to land on the Moon on Wednesday at around 18:04 hrs IST.
Recounting Indias space journey when it launched its first rocket in 1963 and the popular image of the rocket nose cone wheeled to the launchpad by a bicycle to put a small payload 124 miles above the Earth Dr Madhu Rammorthy feels proud about Indias joinery beyond the earths orbit and now on moon.
Rammoorthy who works in the area of advanced materials that go into aerospace and defence owns a company in Bangalore that makes a lot of components. The entrepreneur also makes a very high-strength fabric that is used to reinforce and make materials stronger.
“One such part is a rubber gasket that's reinforced using our material that actually, from what I understand, is part of the Chandrayaan mission. So we are equally invested in this. We're all keeping our fingers crossed. We're looking forward to tomorrow, and I'm really hoping that all goes well, and I'm sure it will..." he said.

India will be the fourth country in the world to achieve this feat after the United States, Russia, and China, but India will be the only country in the world to land on the lunar south pole.
Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) - lander Vikram and rover Pragyan - is scheduled to make a touch down near the lunar south pole at 6.04 pm on Wednesday.
Another visitor, Radhika Narayan, said she is very proud of India's accomplishment.
“We are watching eagerly every mission that they undertake. And I want to wish them the very, very best. And I'm sure there'll be many, many more such successful missions,” she said.
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A priest at the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Seva Samiti temple, Sai A. Sharma said: "Today we are performing havan for the success of Chandrayaan. We are praying to Lakshminarasimha Swamy and also performing 'Maha Ganapati Havan'. Due to the blessings of Lakshminarasimha Swamy, this mission will be successful."

Meanwhile, Former ISRO scientist YS Rajan shed light on the momentous progress of India's lunar endeavour and revealed that around 80 per cent of the modifications have been completed in Chandrayaan-3.
“About 80 per cent of changes are done (in Chandrayaan-3)...They incorporated many things into Chandrayaan-3,” he said.
He further said that the previous version solely relied on an altimeter to gauge landing height, the new iteration boasts the addition of a Doppler velocity meter.
This addition allows for more precise control over both landing height and velocity, enhancing the mission's overall safety during descent.
“Earlier it was seeing only the height when it is landing, called Altimeter, now in addition to that they've also added a velocity meter called Doppler, so you will know the height and also velocity, so that it can control itself,” he added.
The live telecast of the landing operations will begin at 5:20 PM IST on Wednesday. Live actions of landing will be available on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV from 5:27 PM IST on Aug 23, 2023.