Rare video shot from plane window captures Chandrayaan-3 racing to Moon

An awesome video that captures the Chandrayaan- 3 spacecraft racing towards the Moon after its take-off from Sriharikota on Friday has been captured from an aircraft window by Dr P V Venkitakrishnan, Director (retired), ISRO Materials, and Rocket Manufacturing Expert who was by sheer coincidence travelling on a flight from Chennai to Dhaka at the time.

“Launch of Chandrayaan-3 from flight. Sometime after takeoff from Chennai to Dhaka flight, the pilot announced to watch this historical event,” he tweeted with the video.

Chandrayaan-3 is headed on a 40-day journey to the Moon. The spacecraft will cover a distance of 300,000 km and is scheduled to land on the moon on August 23-24 with potential adjustments depending on the sunrise over the moon. If necessary, ISRO will reschedule the landing for September.

 Upon landing, it will explore the surface of the moon with the scientific instruments on board for one lunar day, which is approximately 14 Earth days.

The success of Chandryaaan-3 will make India only the fourth nation after the USA, Russia and China to land a spacecraft on the moon.