ISRO’s live streaming of the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar surface broke all previous YouTube viewership records. With the Chandrayaan-3 landing, India became the fourth nation to land on the moon after the US, the UK, and China. The country also became the first to land on the unexplored South Pole of the moon. Just before the historic moment, at 6:04 pm, around 80 lakh or 8 million individuals tuned in to watch the landing. Here’s all you need to know about the Chandrayaan-3 landing and the viewership record set by the ISRO channel.
Chandrayaan-3 Soft Landing Live Stream Breaks Viewership Records on YouTube
When Chandrayaan-3 landed on the lunar surface at 6:04 pm IST on August 23, it was not just the ISRO scientists and officials, along with PM Narendra Modi cheering from Johannesburg. According to various reports and screenshots posted on X, around 8 million or 80 lakh people globally had tuned in to watch the live stream on YouTube and cheer the ISRO team as the momentous feat was achieved.
8 Million watched the live stream of the landing of Chandrayaan-3 on Moon’s south pole.
And, this figure is only on the ISRO channel. Imagine the total number of viewers through various media platforms.
Proud moment for Indians.
Thank you ISRO (@isro). pic.twitter.com/lYtjHkdEPB— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) August 23, 2023
The livestream had 5.6 million concurrent viewers at 5:53 pm, breaking the Spanish Internet celebrity and streamer Ibai Llanos’ 3.4 million viewers record on Twitch. It broke the previous YouTube record of 60 lakh views at the time of the landing, with 80 lakh viewers. YouTuber Casimiro clocked the last record during a 2022 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal match.
The channel is still attracting views on the Chandrayaan-3 landing livestream video, and 16 hours later, it has around 7 crore views and around 1 lakh comments. Bear in mind that this is just the YouTube stats, and the official numbers from other social media platforms are not known yet. This shows the sheer magnitude of the feat achieved by ISRO and the global fascination with space exploration.
Top Facts You Should Know About Chandrayaan-3
The soft landing of Chandrayaan 3 on the lunar surface was a proud moment for all Indians. Here are some facts about Chandrayaan-3 that everyone must know.
- India is the fourth nation to land on the moon and the first to land on the south pole of the moon. The country will also become the second country after China to have an operating rover on the lunar surface.
- Significant people associated with the Chandrayaan-3 project are ISRO Chairman S Somnath, Project Director P Veeramuthuvel, Director of VSSC Unnikrishnan Nair, and Director URSC M Sankaran.
- The companies behind the Chandrayaan-3 mission include Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Walchandnagar Industries, Paras Defence & Space Technologies, Linde India, Godrej Aerospace, BHEL, MTAR Technologies, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), and Centum Electronics.
- Merely hours after the soft landing, Pragyan rover went out for the ‘walk’. Pragyan rover will imprint the Indian flag and ISRO logo on the lunar surface.
- The entire Chandrayaan-3 mission costs around Rs 650 crores, less than the Rs 700 crore budget of the movie Adipurush.
- This was India’s third lunar mission, and the ISRO chief revealed that the Chandrayaan-3 was a failure-based design, incorporating learnings from mistakes made by Chandrayaan-2.
- Chandrayaan-2 was India’s previous mission to land on the moon’s south pole, which failed in 2019, and the Chandrayaan-3 was a follow-up mission.
X Users React to Chandrayaan-3 Soft Landing on Moon
Popular companies to individuals marked the historical moment on X with encouraging and proud tweets. Here are some of the best threads on the platform.
After soft landing our beloved scientists are dancing like crazy in full ecstasy 🇮🇳
Thankyou ISRO for this wonderful moment 🙏🏻 #Chandrayaan3 #PragyanRover #चंद्रयान_3 #VikramLander #IndiaOnTheMoon #praggnanandha #ArrestPrakashRaj #Chandrayaan3Success
— Madhur Sharma ⚡️ (@MadhurGovindam) August 24, 2023
Good Morning @nytimes,#Chandrayaan3 says Hello from south pole. pic.twitter.com/3ptUDoCH0A
— Facts (@BefittingFacts) August 24, 2023
Image that will permanently be printed on the surface moon as Tyres of rover has this imprint.👌🏻💯
Since there is no air on moon these marks will be forever. 🚀🇮🇳 @ISRO
|| #Chandrayaan3 | #IndiaOnTheMoon || pic.twitter.com/3ffnPOBd6k
— Mʀꜱ.Kᴇᴇʀᴛʜɪ (@MrsKeerthi85) August 24, 2023
What an incredible moment! Congratulations to @isro for the successful landing of #Chandrayaan3 on the moon this morning. Today India became the first country to successfully achieve a soft landing on the southern polar region of the moon. https://t.co/2D6qSmneUp
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) August 23, 2023