Nearly 5,000 eager spectators registered for the GSLV MK-III rocket, also known as Bahubali, from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota on Monday morning.
As the countdown began, the excitement reached a new high. And this came after a weekend that marked the Cricket World Cup finals, Wimbledon men’s final, F1 finals.
When the countdown was stopped at -00:55:24, the screen in the public viewing gallery lost its connectivity where space enthusiasts from all corners of the country visited to witness the launch.
Groups of school students from Jaipur, Dehradun, Telangana and Kerala were also present.
A group of cyclists too made it to Sriharikota to be a part of the historic event.
Vikas Kumar, 45, from Mumbai said, "This was a moment I was waiting for many years. My first visit turned out to be bitter but it is only because of my personal experience. But the mission should go on. No one should be disappointed but be happy that it didn’t turn out to be worse.”
Meghana Kumari, 39, of Pune said, "The whole experience was worth it. It doesn’t matter if we didn’t see the launch, it’s better than seeing a disaster.”
Surya, 15, from Bengaluru, said: “I had studied about this mission and was eagerly waiting. Since this got cancelled, I hope I get to return to the launch soon.”