In 2020, India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission was completed at a cost of Rs 615 crore ($75 million), which is less than half of the budget of the Hollywood movie Interstellar. Surprisingly, this means that making a film about space was more expensive than sending a real mission into space.
This astonishing fact is spreading rapidly on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), and even caught the attention of entrepreneur Elon Musk.
A post by the account Newsthink on X highlights the stark contrast: “It’s quite astonishing to realize that India’s budget for Chandrayaan-3 ($75M) is lower than the budget for the movie Interstellar ($165M).”
Elon Musk joined the conversation by commending India. The billionaire tweeted, along with an emoji of the Indian tricolor, “This is great for India.”
The Chandrayaan-3 mission’s lander was launched on July 14 and is anticipated to softly land on the far side of the moon on August 23.
ISRO announced its plans to activate the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS) for Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Module (LM) on Wednesday. The goal is for the LM, which consists of the lander named Vikram and the rover named Pragyan, to successfully touch down on the moon’s surface later in the day.
This event holds significant importance as the landing is scheduled to occur in the vicinity of the moon’s south polar region, a remarkable achievement not yet realized by any other country.
Back in 2020, ISRO Chairman K Sivan disclosed that the cost of Chandrayaan-3 amounted to Rs 615 crore. Within this budget, the rover and propulsion module were valued at Rs 250 crore, while the launch services accounted for Rs 365 crore.
Comparatively, the prior Chandrayaan-2 mission had incurred a cost of Rs 978 crore.
In a nutshell, the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s budget of $75 million is a testament to India’s efficient space exploration endeavors. It’s a striking contrast to the $165 million spent on the production of the movie Interstellar, which serves as a reminder that real-world space exploration can sometimes be more financially prudent than its cinematic portrayal.
