India is on its way back to the moon after a rocket lifted off from Sriharikota, a launch site off the country’s East Coast, on Friday afternoon local time
The mission, Chandrayaan-3, is largely a do-over after the country’s first attempt at putting a robotic spacecraft on the surface of the moon nearly four years ago ended in a crash and a crater.
Chandrayaan-3 is taking place amid renewed interest in exploring the moon.
The United States and China are both aiming to send astronauts there in the coming years, and a half dozen robotic missions from Russia, Japan and the United States could head there this year and next.
If the robotic lander and rover aboard Chandrayaan-3 succeed in landing intact, that will be an accomplishment that no country other than China has pulled off this century, adding to the national pride India takes in its homegrown space program.
A cadre of commercial space start-ups is also popping up in India. Last month, India reached an agreement with the United States to send a joint mission to the International Space Station next year.
The Indian Space Research Organization — India’s equivalent of NASA — is also developing its own spacecraft to take astronauts to orbit.
On Friday, at 2:35 p.m. local time (5:05 a.m. Eastern time), a rocket called Launch Vehicle Mark III lifted off from the Indian space base on an island north of the metropolis of Chennai.
As crowds waving Indian flags and colorful umbrellas cheered, the rocket rose into the sky.
Sixteen minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the rocket’s upper stage, and a round of cheering and clapping erupted in the mission control center.
“It is indeed a moment of glory for India,” Jitendra Singh, the minister of state for India’s Ministry of Science of Technology, said in remarks after the launch, “and a moment of destiny for all of us over here at Sriharikota who are part of the history in the making.”
Over the coming weeks, the spacecraft will perform a series of engine firings to elongate its orbit before heading toward the moon.
A landing attempt is scheduled to occur on Aug. 23 or 24, timed to coincide with sunrise at the landing site in the moon’s south polar region./NYT