The Indian space agency said an Indian spacecraft has made its way to the far side of the moon in a follow-up mission to its efforts nearly four years ago to land a rover on the lunar surface.
Chandrayaan-3, which means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, took off from the launch pad in Sriharikota in southern India with an orbiter, lander and rover, in a display of India’s nascent space technology.
The spacecraft is scheduled to begin a journey that will take just over a month before landing on the lunar surface later in August.
Applause and cheering erupted at the control center of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, as Indian Space Research Organization engineers and scientists celebrated while observing the launch of the spacecraft.
“Congratulations to India. Chandrayaan-3 has begun its journey to the moon,” said Sridhara Panicker Somnath, director of the Indian Space Research Organization, shortly after the launch.
Dr Jitendra Singh, Chief Minister of Science and Technology, said, “The lander and six-wheeled rover on Chandrayaan-3 have been fitted with payloads that will provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including compositions and chemical elements.
It is reported that in 2019 India’s previous attempt to land a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon had failed.
The spacecraft entered lunar orbit but lost contact with the lander, which crashed during its final descent to deploy a spacecraft to search for signs of water.
According to the report submitted to the Indian Space Research Organization, the failure of the attempt was due to a software glitch.
The mission in 2019, which cost $140 million, aimed to study permanently shadowed craters on the moon’s surface that are believed to contain water deposits and was confirmed by India’s (Chandrayan-1) mission in 2008.
The director of the Indian Space Research Organization, Sridhara Panicker Somnath, said the main objective of the mission this time was a safe and smooth landing on the moon. He said the Indian space agency had mastered the art of getting to the moon, “but it’s the landing that the agency is working on.”
With a nuclear-armed India emerging as the world’s fifth-largest economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist government is keen to showcase the country’s prowess in security and technology.
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2023-07-14 10:14:59
