An Indian spacecraft has successfully landed on the moon on Wednesday in a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration, making it the first country to do so.
This was India’s second attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon and comes less than a week after Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon after spinning out of control in its first moon mission in almost 50 years.
India has become the fourth country in world to land on the moon after China, Russia, and USA had already landed on it.
People across the country were glued to television screens and said prayers as the spacecraft approached the surface.
Nearly 7 million watched the YouTube live stream.
India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who was seen waving the Indian flag as he watched the landing from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS summit, said “This is a victory cry of a new India.”
Scientists and officials clapped, cheered and hugged each other as the spacecraft landed and as the government now looks to spur investment in private space launches and related satellite-based businesses.
The Chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), S. Somanath, announced that “India is on the moon” as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the lunar south pole.
Chandrayaan means “moon vehicle” in Hindi and Sanskrit. In 2019, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander crashed.
The Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain functional for two weeks, running a series of experiments including a spectrometer analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface.
The moon rover will take a few hours or a day to come out of the spacecraft, Somanath told reporters, adding that the landing has given India confidence to extend its reach to possible voyages to Mars and Venus.
India is also planning to launch a mission in September to study the sun, Somanath said. A human space flight is also planned and, while no official date has been announced, preparations are likely to be ready by 2024.
The landing is expected to boost India’s reputation for cost-competitive space engineering. The Chandrayaan-3 was launched with a budget of about 6.15 billion rupees ($74 million), less than the cost to produce the 2013 Hollywood space thriller “Gravity.”
“Landing on the south pole would actually allow India to explore if there is water ice on the moon. And this is very important for cumulative data and science on the geology of the moon,” said Carla Filotico, a partner and managing director at consultancy SpaceTec Partners.
Rough terrain makes a south pole landing difficult, and a first landing is historic.
Reports say the region’s ice could supply fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions.
A partner and managing director at consultancy SpaceTec Partners, Carla Filotico, said “Landing on the south pole (of the moon) would actually allow India to explore if there is water ice on the moon. And this is very important for cumulative data and science on the geology of the moon.”
Putin felicitates India
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated India in a message to Modi published on the Kremlin website.
“This is a big step forward in space exploration and of course a testament to the impressive progress made by India in the field of science and technology,” he said.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated the ISRO on the landing.
“And congratulations to India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon,” he said on X, formerly Twitter. “We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!”
