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If At First You Don't Succeed............ #Chandrayaan2


I was there,awake with all my attention to the TV screen observing the landing process of the Vikram lander and how it was slowing down, getting ready to do the soft landing on the surface of the moon.It was the last '15 Minutes of Terror', the most critical phase of the landing process.I could feel the tension climbing in and the pressure building up.The atmosphere got tense and emotions were ready to explode out and I was able to see it and feel it.Somehow and in someway,I was connected to all the scientist at ISRO even though I was far away from them just looking at my TV screen.What was I seeing on those faces?What were their eyes trying to tell?They looked calm but I knew that inside their big brains,their thoughts were moving faster than the speed of light.They were curious,they were excited,they were scared and terrified and most importantly,they had faith & hope.They had faith on Vikram and had hope that everything will happen the way they wanted everything to happen.I had hope.Time kept on passing and it was the last 15 minutes of terror,then 13,then 10 and finally the last 2 minutes,the most critical 2 minutes that ISRO will never forget.I was observing along with everyone the reducing distance between moons surface and the lander.The scientists were applauding each other for every successful phase.It was a six phase landing and three were successfully completed.At 1:52 AM, a brief communication loss with the NASA Deep Space Network caused an initial communications glitch but they were able to recover and then everything was going fine.The distance was reducing from 10 KM to 8 KM to 6 KM to 5 KM to 4 KM to 3 KM to 2.1 KM and at this point, something happened and everyone who decided to be awake and watch the whole thing go through felt it.The updates had stopped and we were unable to see the lander actually land successfully.The graph that was updating the landing distance froze.I got shivers and chills down my spine as the 15 minutes were now over and we did not get a proper update.I was worried,afraid and scared but I was still hopeful and I had complete faith on the ISRO scientists.But time kept passing and now it was 2 minutes past the original deadline and I noticed a slow and subtle change in the atmosphere of the control room.Every scientist now looked very worried and the calm atmosphere slowly but surely started to turn a little panicky.Even our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi knew that something was not right and I could see it in his face that he was worried not for the project but for his humble and hardworking scientists and he was not ready to see them heartbroken.After all,Modi is the definition of hard work.But we still had our hopes high up in the sky and we still believed that good news was somehow around the corner.A part my head was saying 'dude calm down!They are analysing the data and soon will announce a successful landing.' but the dread was still eating me up inside.Then a few moments later Dr. K Sivan Pillai, the chairman of ISRO personally went to Modi to convey to him about what was going on and it did not look like anybody was too optimistic anymore.And soon a few moments later,Dr. K Sivan officially announced that the landing mission was going on normally until the distance remaining to reach the moons surface was just 2.1 KM when ISRO abruptly lost all contact with the lander.His voice was definitely a little shaky I could feel his pain and disappointment and he was very courageous to face the world.The faces of all the scientists said it all and how their once excited expressions went completely dead almost made me cry and I could not even imagine what must have been going through their head at that moment.I am sure that they were trying their damn hardest to gain the link back between the oribiter and the lander.
And I love how Modi Ji is like a father-figure to ISRO and his little chat about courage with the scientists was very inspiring,heartwarming and emotional as he went on to meet the children who came to witness history.And then I went to sleep with a very heavy heart but still hopeful that morning will be bring good news.

An Emotinal Morning
I woke up in the morning to this very emotional video:

This video made me shed a few manly tears. Dr. K Sivan could not control his emotions anymore and his pain was felt by the entire nation.When Modi Ji arrived in the morning,Dr. K Sivan let his emotions out and embraced him as Modi Ji is the only person to whom he could convey his emotions to his fullest.And you can see how Modi is struggling to control his emotions as well but somehow he did and helped K Sivan calm down.Modi Ji is definitely a perfect father figure.I have watched this video now a few times and everytime I shed tears.It shows the hardwork that was put in and it shows the truth of life that is things do not go as planned sometimes but what matters is that we tried and we did not back down.

 Not A Failure
This whole event will never be considered a failure.It was a success through and through and only at the very end it faltered but I consider this as a learning curve.The fact that the entire nation stayed awake at night and was rooting for ISRO is more than enough proof that this mission was more successful than it ever wanted to be.The entire nation,united,strong and going through the same thrills and same pains is a magical thing on its own!The orbiter is still successfully moving around the moon and will be there for an year collecting valuable and important data about the moon and was already supposed to do most of the science stuff(yes I said science 'stuff' lol) and our nation was the first nation that attempted to land on the South Poles of the moon which was already a difficult task and we gained 95% success on the very first try which is amazing.This was not a misstep but it was the 99th step, 1 step closer to 100.And I will still have hope that somehow,the lander is completely fine and is doing its job without us and that it will somehow start communicating.And maybe that is case!Maybe everything is much better than they appear.One thing is sure that we are only moving forward and even if the landing was a failure,ISRO tried their hardest and they inspire us to give our best and never give up!Even United States took 12 attempts to succeed!So all I want to say is that I am proud of ISRO and whatever I say about them is too less compared to their achievements!

 #Chandrayaan2
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