'Not far from sending astronauts to moon': Scientists after Chandrayaan 4

Responding to the Union cabinet's nod to India's fourth lunar mission, the Indian scientific community said that the country is not far from sending a 'cosmonaut' to the moon.Speaking to ANI, the former director of the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad Center, Tapan Misra, said, "We should be able to land a lander there and collect stones and lunar soil and bring it back to the orbiter, and with this orbiter, we should come back and land safely and retribute. This is the very first step towards sending an Indian cosmonaut to the Moon. We will not be far from sending a cosmonaut to the moon."He further said, "The Govt of India has approved 3 programmes and one of them is Chandrayaan 4. We are happy that Chandrayaan 3 landed there...we demonstrated 2 critical technologies, we can send something to the moon and bring it back, and we can fire a rocket after landing and waiting for 14 days, it's a major development."Describing the Chandrayaan 4 mission, RC Kapoor, Astronomer & ...