BENGALURU: On Friday, India’s space agency successfully launched a rocket, sending a spacecraft into orbit on its way to a planned landing next month on the lunar south pole.
On Friday afternoon, a cloud of smoke and fire rose above India’s primary spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh as the LVM3 launch rocket of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lifted off.
ISRO’s mission control confirmed that the rocket had successfully placed the Chandrayaan-3 lander into an Earth orbit, from which it will loop towards a lunar landing next month, after about 16 minutes of operation.
India, along with the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China, would become the fourth nation to accomplish a controlled lunar landing if this mission is successful.
If successful, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft would be the first to touch down on the moon’s south pole, a region of particular interest to space agencies and private space firms due to the existence of water ice that could one day sustain a space station.
The launch occurred at 9:05 p.m. GMT, or 2:35 p.m. local time in India. More than 1.4 million people watched the launch on ISRO’s YouTube account, with many commenting their support and wishing India “Jai Hind” (Victory to India).
The Chandrayaan-2 mission, launched by ISRO in 2019, was successful in deploying an orbiter, but the lander and rover were lost in a crash not far from where Chandrayaan-3 would attempt a touchdown.
The Chandrayaan lander, whose name translates to “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, is 6.6 feet tall and is meant to deploy a rover towards the south pole of the moon, where it will remain operational for two weeks while conducting a number of tests.
ISRO has announced that the moon landing will occur on August 23.
This is India’s first big mission following the announcement of new government policies meant to encourage investment in space launches and related satellite-based companies by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This lunar expedition will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation,” Modi tweeted earlier.
At a spaceport event commemorating the launch, Deputy Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh remarked, “As Mother India enters the next 25 years, she pledges to play a leading global role in the emerging world scenario.”
The number of space companies has increased by a factor of two since 2020, when India began allowing private launches. Skyroot Aerospace, backed by investors like Singapore’s GIC, launched India’s first privately made rocket towards the end of last year.
