India launched a spacecraft to the far side of the moon on Friday, in a mission that resumes the failed attempt to land a vehicle on the lunar surface in 2019, the New Delhi space agency announced.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which means “moonship” in Sanskrit, was launched by rocket from a platform in Sriharikota, southern India, with a lander and a vehicle (rover) on board.
The spacecraft will begin a journey of just over a month before landing in late August.
“Congratulations, India. Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey to the moon,” said space program director Sreedhara Panicker Somanath shortly after launch.
If the landing succeeds, India will become the fourth country – after the United States, the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China – to succeed in carrying out such a mission.
The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover could provide the scientific community with data on the properties of the moon’s soil and rocks, including chemical compositions, said Jitendra Singh, deputy minister of Science and Technology in the New Delhi government.
India’s previous attempt to launch a robotic spacecraft near the moon’s largely unexplored south pole failed in 2019.
The previous device entered lunar orbit, but lost contact with the landing module, which crashed during the final descent to place a vehicle.
According to a crash analysis report, the crash was caused by a software glitch.
Several countries and private companies are in the race to successfully place a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
In April, a Japanese company’s spacecraft crashed while trying to land.
An Israeli nonprofit attempted a similar feat in 2019, but the spacecraft crashed.
India is also awaiting the first mission to the International Space Station next year, in partnership with the United States, as planned after the meeting between the Indian head of state and the US president last month.
As part of its own space program, active since the 1960s, India has also launched satellites to other countries, having successfully launched a satellite into Mars orbit in 2014.
Until last April, India had launched 424 satellites to 34 countries, including Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Source: DN
