Chandrayaan-3 costs less than Adipurush and Barbie: Check details

Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully made a soft landing on the lunar surface on Wednesday evening. With this successful landing, India became the first country to land on the south pole of the Moon and the fourth country, which has successfully completed a soft landing on the Moon. This was India’s second attempt at landing on the lunar surface after the Chandrayaan-2 crash-landed during its final descent four years ago. Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander touched the lunar surface at 6.04 PM IST, resulting in celebration across the country. After the landing, ISRO said that the communication link has been established between the Chandrayaan-3 lander and the Mission Operations Centre (MOX) and ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru.

PM Modi congratulated ISRO and in an X post, he said, “Historic day for India’s space sector. Congratulations to @isro for the remarkable success of Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission.”

Historic day for India's space sector. Congratulations to @isro for the remarkable success of Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission. https://t.co/F1UrgJklfp

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 23, 2023

But did you know Chandrayaan-3 cost less than some recent Hollywood and Bollywood movies such as Barbie and Adipurush? India’s lunar blockbuster, Chandrayaan-3, which cost the nation Rs 615 crore, is cheaper than the dud film, ‘Adipurush’ (budget: Rs 700 crore), and if the amount is converted to US dollars ($75 million), it is cheaper than the two Hollywood movies ruling the global box office today — Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ ($145 million) and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ ($100 million).

In fact, Nolan’s 2013 space movie, ‘Interstellar’, which is set in the future and features an Indian solar-powered drone, among other spectacular machines, cost $165 million to produce. Note that the budget is not inflation-adjusted.

While on the subject of space travel-inspired film, it may be worth remembering that Ridley Scott’s Matt Damon-starrer ‘The Martian’ (2015) was produced for $106 million.

Chandrayaan-3 is also cheaper than the average listed price of any of the Boeing aircraft, which Air India has recently placed an order for 737 MAX ($128.25 million each), 787-9 ($292.50 million) and 777.9 ($442.20 million).

Air India has ordered 220 of these aircraft, and if we check out the prices of the 250 Airbus planes it has sealed the deal for, then also Chandrayaan-3 is cheaper.

An Airbus 320neo is priced at $110.60 million each; Chandrayaan-3 also costs less than an Airbus 321neo ($129.50 million) and is less than a quarter of the price of an A350-1000 ($366.50 million) and A350-900 ($317.40 million).

And if likes were to be compared, then ISRO’s ground-breaking mission to the dark side of the Moon, the lunar South Pole, cost way less than Russia’s failed Luna 25 (estimated at $200 million or more than Rs 1,600 crore) and of course China’s first Chang’e probe (1.4 billion yuan or $219 million).

Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14 through an LVM3 L4 launch vehicle from Sriharikota in Andra Pradesh. ISRO performed four orbit-raising manoeuvres before successfully injecting the spacecraft into translunar orbit. The spacecraft used Earth and Moon’s gravity and took more than 40 days to reach the Moon. 

–Written with inputs from IANS