Moon landing: India’s rocket launches successfully

2023-07-14 18:27:14

Four years after an unsuccessful attempt to land on the moon, India has sent a second unmanned spacecraft on its way to the moon. A carrier rocket with the “Chandrayaan 3” probe on board was launched on Friday at 11:05 a.m. German time from the Satish Dhawan Cosmodrome near the southern Indian metropolis of Chennai. The goal of the spacecraft, which consists of a lander and a lunar vehicle, is the south side of the moon.

The little-studied region of the moon is to be explored for fourteen days. Landing is scheduled for August 23 or 24. Chandrayaan 3 will also receive support from ground stations from other space agencies, including ESA. If the mission is successful, India would be the fourth nation after the US, Russia and China to land on the moon.

Course of India’s moon mission “Chandrayaan 3”: Image: dpa

India’s first attempt failed in 2019. During the Chandrayaan 2 mission, the landing module crashed onto the surface of the Earth’s satellite. The space agency later informed the parliament in New Delhi that there had been problems with the deceleration process during the approach to the moon. India had previously sent another mission to the moon: the “Chandrayaan-1” probe was launched in 2008 and orbited the moon without landing on it. With the current mission, the lunar orbit should be reached after around 15 to 20 days , said the Indian space agency ISRO.

Ambitious space goals

Before the second attempt, space agency officials visited the Hindu temple in the city of Tirupati, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, and asked for divine assistance. Agency chief Sreedhara Panicker Somanath told reporters at the scene, “We hope all goes well and the probe lands on the moon on August 23.”

India’s space program began in the 1960s. In the first decades, the focus was primarily on launching certain satellites into space at low cost. The country thus gained a reputation for being able to launch satellites into space for little money. In 2014, India’s spaceflight had attracted global attention when an Indian spacecraft (“Mangalyaan 1”) was launched into orbit on Mars and sent a first image of the red planet’s surface back to Earth.

India has other ambitious goals. Recently, during a visit by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to US President Joe Biden, increased cooperation on space travel was announced. In addition to the current moon mission, other projects are planned, which are expected to start from the end of 2024.

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So there should be missions to Venus (“Shukrayaan 1”) and to Mars (“Mangalyaan 2”). In addition, astronauts are to be sent into space (mission “Gaganyaan”). The government also wants to increasingly rely on the private sector, private companies are allowed to use the infrastructure of the space agency. Recently, they shot a rocket developed by a local private company into space for the first time.