India blasts the Chandrayaan-3 lander toward moon’s south pole

BENGALURU: Chandrayaan-3 update, In an unprecedented move that would strengthen India standing as a significant space power, the Indian space agency launched a rocket on Friday that put a spacecraft into orbit and toward a planned landing on the lunar south pole next month.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) LVM3 launch rocket blasted off from the country’s main spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Friday afternoon, leaving behind a plume of smoke and fire.

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The Chandrayaan-3 lander successfully placed into an Earth orbit by the rocket around 16 minutes later, according to ISRO’s mission control, which will send it looping toward a moon landing next month.

If the mission is successful, India will join the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China as the fourth nation to successfully complete a controlled lunar landing.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft would also be the first to land at the lunar south pole, an area of special interest for space agencies and private space companies because of the presence of water ice that could support a future space station.

The rocket blasted off from India’s main spaceport as over 1.4 million people watched the launch on ISRO’s YouTube channel, many offering congratulations and the patriotic slogan “Jai Hind” (Victory to India).

In 2019, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully deployed an orbiter. But its lander and rover destroyed in a crash near where the Chandrayan-3 will attempt a touchdown.

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Chandrayaan, which means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, includes a 2-metre-(6.6-foot)-tall lander designed to deploy a rover near the moon’s south pole, where it is expect to remain functional for two weeks running a series of experiments. The lunar landing is expect on Aug. 23, ISRO has said.

Since the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced measures to encourage investment in space launches and related satellite-based companies, this launch marks India’s first significant mission.

The moon expedition “will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation,” Modi had earlier stated on Twitter.

“As Mother India enters into the next 25 years, she pledges to play a leading global role in the emerging world scenario,” Deputy Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said in an event at the spaceport to celebrate the launch.

Since 2020, when India opened to private launches, the number of space startups has more than doubled. Late last year, Skyroot Aerospace, whose investors include Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, launched India’s first privately built rocket.