A genuine roar rips across schools in Mumbai and Pune as Chandrayaan-3 safely lands on the south pole of the moon at 6.04 PM, making India the first country to do so. Special ceremonies and live streaming were held on school grounds on August 23.
In a country with a deep tradition of science, the entire nation could be seen praying, cheering and hoping fervently, as the touchdown of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon marked the accomplishment of a successful mission.
Inspiring thousands of students
With thousands gathering in schools, students could be seen beaming with excitement, repeating the historic telecast over and over before playing joyful songs.
While many schools had instructed students and parents to watch the live transmission from home, only a handful schools had made special arrangements for live streaming of ISRO's mission's soft landing Chandrayaan-3.
"The purpose of showcasing this historic telecast to students is that when thousands of students see this, two or three out of these could aspire to become a scientist," says Arun Dengele, a history teacher at New English School in Pune.
The coverage of the soft-landing was available on multiple platforms, including the ISRO's website, YouTube channel and Facebook page, and DD National TV channel.
According to Jyoti Nair, principal of Arunodaya Public School in Thane, "The entire goal of mandating students to watch the Chandrayaan landing on the moon is to make them understand their roots in the country and where they belong. This is a crucial event for all Indians. It's like watching the World Cup; we find people of all ages engrossed in it; similarly, from children to adults, everyone should witness this important landmark too."
Along with Don Bosco School in Borivali and the Cathedral and John Connon School in Fort, the Orchids International School have also streamed the live telecast of Chandrayaan-3's Moon landing.
Speaking on the behalf on the Orchids The International School Dr. Vedavathi Bysani, VP of Academics, Bangalore Zone 1A, said, “As an Institution, we always aim to encourage students’ inquisitiveness and creativity and help them come out as smarter thinkers and doers. It was quite exciting for us to see this depicted by our students during this historic event of the Chandrayaan 3 mission. We stand with the rest of the country with pride and awe at the efforts done by our Indian scientists to put our country on the global map for yet another reason.”
A total number of 43 students showed up for the screening session at National Urdu High School & Junior college in Kalyan. "Students experienced sheer joy after being a part of this history. They have surely developed some interest in this topic, we are happy to have conducted this session for our students,” said the school's principal, Khan Abdullah Zakirullah.
"Indeed, we wanted all our students to be a part of this great history, however, owing to the unit test examination not all the students could make it," he added.
Excited students watched the live-telecast with bated breath.
While students were glued to screens and huge televisions set up on their campuses to watch the live-streaming of Chandrayaan-3, a mix of pride and anticipation could be seen on their faces ahead of the moon landing.
Aryaman Bhosle, a class 9 student at New English School in Pune, says, "I'm very happy to watch the landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon. It has inspired me to become a scientist too, just like my idol scientist is Dr Sreedhara Panicker Somnath, the ISRO head."
“Maza aa gaya! We are very proud to say we are Indian because of our scientists,” says another student from Don Bosco school, Borivali.
Schools across Mumbai and Pune conducted activities such as Digital poster-making competition, letter writing or creating video/reel competition congratulating the ISRO team for their success.
ISRO has been telecasting the landing live on its website. The Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched on July 14 from Sriharikota.
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