Chandrayaan 3 launch successful, says ISRO; Will land on moon on Aug 23
Sriharikota: India achieved a significant milestone in space exploration as it successfully launched its third mission to the moon, Chandrayaan 3, using its largest rocket, the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3). The historic launch took place at 2:35 pm on Friday, July 14, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
Chandrayaan 3 is the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) second attempt to soft-land near the lunar south pole, following the unsuccessful landing of Chandrayaan-2 in 2019. The mission aims to make India the first country in the world to achieve a soft landing near the moon's south pole and the fourth nation, after the former USSR, the United States, and China, to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
Approximately 16 minutes into the flight, around 2:50 p.m., the rocket flawlessly released the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft at an altitude of approximately 179 km. Now, the spacecraft embarks on its arduous journey to the moon, covering a distance of 384,000 km. The anticipated timeline projects a soft landing on the lunar surface between August 23 and 24.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
