Bengaluru. An Indian spacecraft landed on the moon on Wednesday, in a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and India’s position as a space power, just days after a similar Russian lander crashed.
“This is the victory cry of a new India,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seen waving the Indian flag while watching the moon landing from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS summit.
Scientists and officials applauded, cheered and hugged as the spacecraft landed, as the government now seeks to stimulate investment in private space launches and satellite-related businesses.
“India is on the moon,” said S. Somanath, head of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), as Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar south pole.
It is the second Indian attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon and comes less than a week after the failure of the Russian Luna-25 mission. People from all over the country were glued to television screens and prayed as the ship descended.
Chandrayaan means “moon vehicle” in Hindi and Sanskrit. In 2019, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully deployed an orbiter, but its lander crashed.
Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain operational for two weeks, conducting a series of experiments including analyzing the mineral composition of the lunar surface with a spectrometer.
The rugged terrain makes landing at the South Pole difficult and a first moon landing is historic. The region’s ice could supply fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions.
India’s Chandrayaan 3 mission landed on the lunar surface. The probe, made up of a lander and a rover, will carry out scientific experiments and collect data on the mineral composition of the satellite and the presence of water in this region of the Moon. Via Graphic News.
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