The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has launched its Chandrayaan-3 lunar spacecraft lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India's Sriharikota island Friday (July 14) at 14:35 local time (09:05 UTC).
Chandrayaan-3 (Sanskrit for "moon vehicle") was carried on top of a Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) rocket bound for the south pole of the Moon.
About 16 minutes after liftoff, the spacecraft, composed of a lander and a rover, separated from the LVM3 rocket as planned and entered orbit around Earth. If successful, India will become the fourth nation to land on the moon after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China.
The homegrown mission has a relatively modest price tag of INR 6 billion ($73 million), Space.com reported. Chandrayaan-3's success would also accelerate India's growing ambitions of low-cost space exploration during a time when many nations are vying to establish a long-term presence on the moon.
"Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey towards [the] moon," ISRO chairman S. Somanath said following the launch. "Our dear LVM-3 has already put Chandrayaan-3 craft into a precise orbit around Earth... Let us wish all the best for the Chandrayaan-3 craft to make its farther orbit-raising maneuvers and travel toward [the] moon in the coming days."
India's Moonshot a Second Time Around
Chandrayaan-3 is ISRO's second ambitious attempt at gently landing on the surface of the moon, a venture that came nearly four years after the tragic crash of the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft due to a software glitch. With the lessons they have learned from the failed mission, and after countless mission changes and spacecraft and systems redesigns, ISRO officials say they are confident of success this time around, as per TechCrunch.
The country's confidence in the spacecraft will be tested over the next month as multiple firings of its thrusters would slowly but surely Increase its speed until such a point that it would be able to reach lunar orbit. Once there, precise maneuvers must safely perch the lander near the moon's south pole, a mainly uncharted region that India dreams of becoming the first to unveil. The lunar south pole is also the target of NASA's Artemis mission in returning humans to the moon after more than 50 years.
"This mission is most significant in terms of ultimate precise landing capability of [the] Chandrayaan-3 lander on the specified lunar surface," former ISRO senior scientist Arun Sinha told Space.com.
Chandrayaan-3 Is not the only lander that is targeting the lunar south pole at this point, as Russia also plans to land its Luna 25 spacecraft which is scheduled to launch in August.
Assuming the Chandrayaan-3's lander named Vikram (Sanskrit for "valor") had a safe touchdown, a six-wheeled rover named Pragyan (Sanskrit for "wisdom"), powered by its own solar array and guided by cameras to avoid obstacles, will roll off the lander on to the lunar surface. The rover will be armed with a spectrometer to analyze lunar soil and rocks, as well as a laser-induced spectroscope to paint its targets and derive their chemical composition.
Chandrayaan-3 is expected to operate for one lunar day, or about to earth weeks, from sunrise to sunset on the moon.
Sinha said while the solar-powered spacecraft was not expected to survive a cold lunar night, there might be "faint chances of extra-efficient battery charge," which could extend the mission by another 14 Earth days.
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Modi: Hopes of the Nation Also Aboard Chandrayaan-3
Upon the launch of the spacecraft Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to wish ISRO and the Chandrayaan-3 mission well, calling the launch "a testament to our scientists' relentless dedication."
"Chandrayaan-3 scripts a new chapter in India's space odyssey," he said. "It soars high, elevating the dreams and ambitions of every Indian... I salute their spirit and ingenuity!"
Other Indian officials also congratulated ISRO for the success of the launch. In particular, Indian minister of state for space and atomic energy Jitendra Singh called the Chandrayaan-3 launch "a moment of glory for India and a moment of destiny" for those watching the launch from Sriharikota.
According to CNN, India's space program has been in development since its inception in the 1960s. They have been famous for launching satellites into orbit at a much cheaper cost than their counterparts from other countries. For example, India became the first Asian nation to reach Mars in 2014 when it put the Mangalyaan probe into orbit around the Red Planet for $74 million dollars, which was less than the $100 million Hollywood spent making the space thriller film "Gravity."
Aside from Chandrayaan, ISRO has long planned to launch its first human space flight mission called Gaganyaan, as well as its Aditya L1 mission to study the Sun and an orbiter to Venus. ISRO is also closely working with NASA to launch a low-Earth orbit (LEO) observatory in 2024 that would map the entire planet in just 12 days and provide consistent data for analyzing changes in Earth's ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level, and natural disasters, and hazards.
Last month, India signed NASA's Artemis Accords to collaborate on space exploration with the program's participating nations. The US space agency also agreed to provide advanced training to Indian astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and send them to the International Space Station next year.
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