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Modi said the rocket will cover more than 300,000 kilometers (186,411 miles) and reach the moon in the “coming weeks.” India has since spent about $75 million on its Chandrayaan-3 mission. “This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation,” he said in a Twitter post. Just before Friday’s launch, Modi said the day “will always be etched in golden letters as far as India’s space sector is concerned.” It too was supposed to explore the moon’s South Pole.Īt the time, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the engineers behind the mission despite the failure, promising to keep working on India’s space program and ambitions. Eleven years later, the Chandrayaan-2 successfully entered lunar orbit but its rover crash-landed on the moon’s surface. India’s maiden lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, discovered water molecules on the moon’s surface. They are aiming to land Chandrayaan-3 near the challenging terrain of the moon’s unexplored South Pole. Indian engineers have been working on the launch for years. Only three other countries have achieved the complicated feat of soft-landing a spacecraft on the moon’s surface – the United States, Russia and China.

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Its aim is to safely land on the lunar surface, collect data and conduct a series of scientific experiments to learn more about the moon’s composition. Aijaz Rahi/APĭeveloped by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Chandrayaan-3 is comprised of a lander, propulsion module and rover. The Indian spacecraft blazed its way to the far side of the moon Friday in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover softly on the lunar surface. Its first lunar probe, the Chandrayaan-1, orbited the moon and was then deliberately crash-landed onto the lunar surface in 2008. It’s India’s second attempt at a soft landing, after its previous effort with the Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 failed. The craft is expected to land on the moon on August 23. This momentous achievement is a testament to our scientists’ relentless dedication.

It soars high, elevating the dreams and ambitions of a every Indian. In response, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Chandrayaan-3 scripts a new chapter in India’s space odyssey. It added that the health of the spacecraft is “normal.” The Indian Space Research Organization confirmed on Twitter later Friday that Chandrayaan-3 is in “precise orbit” and has “begun its journey to the moon.” ET).Ĭrowds gathered at the space center to watch the history-making launch and more than 1 million people tuned in to watch on YouTube. India is bidding to become only the fourth country to execute a controlled landing on the moon with the successful launch Friday of its Chandrayaan-3 mission.Ĭhandrayaan, which means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota in southern Andhra Pradesh state at just after 2:30 p.m.

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