Confident of safe landing of the moon lander, a special puja has been organised for Thursday at the temple as thanks giving, he added.

“Praying for the successful moon landing of India’s moon lander on Wednesday evening, a special puja was held in the morning. About 50 devotees were present,” said D.Govindharaju, Deputy General Secretary, Desia Thirukovilgal Koottamaippu (National Temples Federation), told IANS.

The Chandranaar Temple is one of the Navagraha temples, all located near Kumbakonam, and devotees pray at these temples to get rid of negative planetary influence on them.

“A thanks giving puja will be held tomorrow morning for the Moon God for the mission’s success. We will also distribute sweets to the people,” Easanasivam, Thanjavur District Organiser, Hindu Munnani told IANS.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was put into orbit on July 14 in a copybook style by India's heavy lift rocket LVM3.

The primary purpose of this mission is to soft land the lander on the moon and the rover to do some experiments on the moon soil.

The Wednesday puja was the fourth one organised for the success of Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) moon mission.

A special puja was also organised for the success of Chandrayaan-1 before the rocket lifted off in 2008, V. Kannan, Retired Manager at the Sri Kailasanathar Temple or Chandranaar Temple had told IANS.

Interestingly, prior to the second moon mission – Chandrayaan-2- special prayers were not arranged. The launch originally slated for July 15, 2019 got postponed due to technical glitch.

According to Kannan, the glitch it was thought may be due to the non-offering of the prayers to the Moon God. Hence, prior to the Chandrayaan-2 launch on July 22, special prayers, ‘Abhishekam’ and ‘Annadhanam’ were conducted.

Kannan said the special prayers were their contribution for India going forward in its scientific programme.

Around 500 devotees come to the Chandranaar Temple daily and on Mondays the number goes up to 5,000, he added.

The nine Navagraha temples are: Suryanaar (Sun), Chandranaar (Moon), Angaragan (Mars), Budhan (Mercury), Guru (Jupiter), Sukran (Venus), Shani (Saturn), Rahu and Ketu.