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India moon landing: Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully lands near lunar south pole
Gabe Hauari, USA TODAY
Updated Wed, August 23, 2023
Gabe Hauari, USA TODAY
Updated Wed, August 23, 2023
Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the moon Wednesday, etching India into history as the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
The Indian Space Research Organization launched Chandrayaan-3 over a month ago with the goal of landing near the lunar south pole, where it made a soft landing at about 8:33 a.m. EDT Wednesday.
The mission marks the first landing of any country near the south pole and the first lunar landing for India. With the landing, India became the fourth country − after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China − to achieve the feat.
Chandrayaan-3, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, took off from a launchpad in Sriharikota in southern India in July with an orbiter, a lander and a rover in a demonstration of India’s emerging space technology.
The world watched the progress of Chandrayaan-3 after the loss of Russia's Luna-25, which crashed into the lunar surface Sunday preparing for a pre-landing orbit of the moon. The Russian space agency Roscosmos said the craft "ceased its existence as a result of a collision with the lunar surface."
The six-wheeled lander and rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, junior minister for Science and Technology.
DIG DEEPER: Chandrayaan-3 attempt India's first moon landing after Russian Luna-25 crash
India Chandrayaan-3 mission is expecting to land near the lunar South Pole
India’s previous attempt to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon’s little-explored south pole ended in failure in 2019. It entered the lunar orbit but lost touch with its lander which crashed while making its final descent to deploy a rover to search for signs of water. According to a failure analysis report submitted to the Indian Space Research Organization, the crash was caused by a software glitch.
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chandrayaan-3: Indian spacecraft lands near lunar south pole
India's Chandrayaan-3 lands on Moon, becoming 4th country to touchdown on lunar surface
Emilee Speck
Wed, August 23, 2023
India became the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon with the Chandrayaan-3 robotic mission, just days after Russia's lander failed to touch down on the lunar surface.
Cheers and applause erupted at the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) mission control on Wednesday when telemetry confirmed a soft landing on the lunar South Pole of the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
"I reached my destination and you too!" a message from Chandrayaan-3 read.
ISRO's live coverage of the landing included a side-by-side of the spacecraft with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose reaction was broadcast in real-time.
Smiling, Modi waved a small Indian flag right after the landing. "India is now on the moon," Modi said.
Congratulations from space officials around the world were pouring on Wednesday after the milestone landing.
NASA's series of arrays on Earth known as the Deep Space Network were used by ISRO to track and communicate with the spacecraft throughout the spaceflight to the Moon.
"Congratulations ISRO on your successful Chandrayaan-3 lunar South Pole landing!" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote on X. "And congratulations to India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon. We're glad to be your partner on this mission!"
India joins the U.S., the former Soviet Union and China to successfully land on the Moon.
The world was watching to see if India's second landing attempt would be a success. Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-up to India's Chandrayaan-2 mission, and consists of a lunar lander, called Vikram, and a small rover, named Pragyan. The Chandrayaan-2 mission ended with the lander crash-landing on the Moon in 2019, however, the spacecraft continues to send data, according to the ISRO.
NASA ASTRONAUTS WILL LAND IN SHADOWED REGIONS ON THE MOON'S SOUTH POLE
NASA's former head of science Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen was in Switzerland watching the landing.
"I watched --we all did. So proud of our ISRO friends! Wow-congrats," Zurbuchen said. "The entire staff of (the) Swiss Space Office and reps of top universities were watching and delayed their meeting!"
The rover and lander are designed to operate for about 14 days on the lunar surface, collecting data with a suite of science instruments.
India's success comes a few days after Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon on Monday, ending the first Russian lunar landing attempt in nearly 50 years.
The Moon's South Pole is an unexplored area of the lunar surface and also where NASA plans to land humans in the next few years as part of the Artemis program. Craters on the South Pole are believed to contain water ice, which could be harvested to create fuel and resources for further space exploration.
India joins exclusive club after successful moon landing - with innovative, low-cost spacecraft
Sky News
Wed, 23 August 2023
Nearly four years ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugged the director of India's space agency who was reduced to tears after losing Chandrayaan-2 - his country's first attempt to land on the moon.
Today, it was tears of joy.
This isn't just a huge triumph for Indian scientists and engineers.
As Chandrayaan-3 touched down near the lunar south pole, it landed India in an exclusive club of just three other nations who have achieved the feat - the US, China and the former USSR.
Mr Modi will rightly revel in his nation's achievement but this is about business as well as politics.
By its engineers' own admission, Chandrayaan-3 isn't the most sophisticated spacecraft ever built.
But they have achieved what other countries (most recently Russia) failed to do with an innovative, low-cost design.
Read more:
India makes history in space - here's what we learnt
Moon landing - as it happened
Leaders in space like the USA, Europe and Japan are now looking to the private sector to explore and commercialise space.
Sticking a moon landing is about the best pitch India's high-tech sector could have wanted for its readiness to partner in international space projects.
Just as with NASA's moon landings in the 1960s and 70s, the achievement of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) will also inspire millions of young Indians pursuing careers in science and engineering.
Sky News
Wed, 23 August 2023
Nearly four years ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugged the director of India's space agency who was reduced to tears after losing Chandrayaan-2 - his country's first attempt to land on the moon.
Today, it was tears of joy.
This isn't just a huge triumph for Indian scientists and engineers.
As Chandrayaan-3 touched down near the lunar south pole, it landed India in an exclusive club of just three other nations who have achieved the feat - the US, China and the former USSR.
Mr Modi will rightly revel in his nation's achievement but this is about business as well as politics.
By its engineers' own admission, Chandrayaan-3 isn't the most sophisticated spacecraft ever built.
But they have achieved what other countries (most recently Russia) failed to do with an innovative, low-cost design.
Read more:
India makes history in space - here's what we learnt
Moon landing - as it happened
Leaders in space like the USA, Europe and Japan are now looking to the private sector to explore and commercialise space.
Sticking a moon landing is about the best pitch India's high-tech sector could have wanted for its readiness to partner in international space projects.
Just as with NASA's moon landings in the 1960s and 70s, the achievement of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) will also inspire millions of young Indians pursuing careers in science and engineering.
It Worked! India First to Land Near Moon’s South Pole
Jackie Appel
Wed, August 23, 2023
India has successfully landed a craft in the southern polar region of the Moon.
This marks the first time any country has landed a craft in that region, and makes India only the fourth country to land on the Moon.
The success comes just days after a Russian mission crashed into the lunar surface attempting to hit the same milestone.
Slow and steady wins the race. After a long journey and the crash of a Russian lander, India has become the first country to successfully perform a soft landing (aka not a crash) in the southern polar region of the Moon. The landing has also made India only the fourth country to ever land on the Moon at all.
According to Reuters, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi called the moment of landing “unforgettable.”
“It is phenomenal,” he continued. “This is a victory cry of a new India.”
The Chandrayaan-3—comprised of a lander called Vikram and a rover called Pragyan—marks a huge success for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which generally operates on a much smaller budget than other world space powers. The mission set off on its way to the Moon on July 14, slowly making its way through space to arrive today, the day the Sun rises and begins the two-Earth-week-long lunar day.
Vikram and Pragyan will have until the lunar night sets in to complete the bulk of their work. The robots will run a number of experiments, including an analysis of the mineral composition of the local area.
The area around the Moon’s south pole is of particular interest to researchers, largely because it is home to a fair amount of ice. Scientists hope that this ice can eventually be leveraged to provide water, oxygen, and even fuel—if future MOXIE-like missions have their way—for lunar missions still to come.
And India got there first, which was not an easy task. The terrain in the Moon’s southernmost region is not exactly hospitable, so it’s hard to find a good place to land. And even if you pick one, everything on your approach has to go right.
We saw incredibly recently that “everything going right on the approach” is far from a given, as Russia attempted their own landing in the southern polar region earlier this week. The Luna-25—Russia’s first attempt at a Moon landing since 1976—crashed into the Moon on Monday. Had it succeeded, it would have just beat India to the region, despite launching almost a full month after Chandrayaan-3 on August 11.
But the hare couldn’t stick the landing, and the tortoise reigned supreme. The impressive and reportedly very cost-effective landing is a real feather in India’s cap, one they hope to add to in the near future. The country is looking forward to another lunar expedition —this time in partnership with Japan—also aimed at exploring the Moon’s southernmost region. They’re also prepping to launch a mission intended to study the Sun in September. And on top of all of that, the ISRO is gearing up for what it hopes will be its first manned space mission.
Hopefully, this success will be an adrenaline shot that can propel India into even more wins in space. But for right now, those involved in the Chandrayaan-3 mission are reveling in their current victory.
“We have achieved soft landing on the moon,” S. Somanath, the director of the Indian Space Research Organization, said in a New York Times article. “India is on the moon.”
India becomes first to land on moon's south pole
Clyde Hughes
Wed, August 23, 2023
An artist's illustration shows India's Vikram moon lander. Image courtesy of Indian Space Research Organization/EPA-EFE
Aug. 23 (UPI) -- India made history Wednesday, becoming the first to land on the south pole region of the moon.
The Indian Space Research Organization landed the unmanned Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar surface shortly after 8:30 a.m. EDT. The mission, streamed live on YouTube, comes days after a robotic Russian spacecraft lost control and crashed trying to do the same thing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the ISRO via video from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS Summit, waving the Indian flag as the Chandrayaan-3 safely landed on the moon. Many at the ISRO control center stood up and applauded at the altitude meter reached 0.00, indicating the spaceship had landed.
Modi gave brief comments commending the space agency on the historic landing as they prepared for the next phase, the deployment of the lunar rover.
India became the third country to make a soft landing on the moon, behind the United States, the former Soviet Union and China, and the first to land on the south pole.
There is significant scientific interest in the south pole because researchers believe it may contain frozen ice, which could be used as drinking water and help make fuel and oxygen allowing for life to be sustained there.
Chandrayaan-3's lander, the Vikram, holds a lunar rover that will be deployed to do a chemical analysis of the moon's sole pole surface in an effort to confirm some of the theories about frozen water and other elements.
While NASA's Artemis program is expected to return astronauts to the moon in 2025, India and Russia have been in a race for the first to reach the south pole. Its failed mission over the weekend has put Roscosmos considerably behind again.
Images released by the Indian space agency last weekend revealed craters on the moon's surface, which will help it avoid potential hazards. Highlighting the danger of such a landing, Japan, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have all failed to safely land on the moon before Russia's mishap.
Wed, August 23, 2023
An artist's illustration shows India's Vikram moon lander. Image courtesy of Indian Space Research Organization/EPA-EFE
Aug. 23 (UPI) -- India made history Wednesday, becoming the first to land on the south pole region of the moon.
The Indian Space Research Organization landed the unmanned Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar surface shortly after 8:30 a.m. EDT. The mission, streamed live on YouTube, comes days after a robotic Russian spacecraft lost control and crashed trying to do the same thing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the ISRO via video from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS Summit, waving the Indian flag as the Chandrayaan-3 safely landed on the moon. Many at the ISRO control center stood up and applauded at the altitude meter reached 0.00, indicating the spaceship had landed.
Modi gave brief comments commending the space agency on the historic landing as they prepared for the next phase, the deployment of the lunar rover.
India became the third country to make a soft landing on the moon, behind the United States, the former Soviet Union and China, and the first to land on the south pole.
There is significant scientific interest in the south pole because researchers believe it may contain frozen ice, which could be used as drinking water and help make fuel and oxygen allowing for life to be sustained there.
Chandrayaan-3's lander, the Vikram, holds a lunar rover that will be deployed to do a chemical analysis of the moon's sole pole surface in an effort to confirm some of the theories about frozen water and other elements.
While NASA's Artemis program is expected to return astronauts to the moon in 2025, India and Russia have been in a race for the first to reach the south pole. Its failed mission over the weekend has put Roscosmos considerably behind again.
Images released by the Indian space agency last weekend revealed craters on the moon's surface, which will help it avoid potential hazards. Highlighting the danger of such a landing, Japan, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have all failed to safely land on the moon before Russia's mishap.
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