from
https://news.yahoo.com/india-space-agency-set-launch-054717772.html

Crowds cheer as India launches a lander and rover to explore the moon’s
south pole

Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit,
blasts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India,
Friday, July 14, 2023. 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, the
country's space agency said. A successful landing would make India the
fourth country, after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, to
achieve the feat. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Members of India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) perform Hindu rituals
for the success of Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon
craft" in Sanskrit, inside a temple in Mumbai, India, Friday, July 14,
2023. 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, the country's space agency
said. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
A girl takes a selfie with the Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, the word
for "moon craft" in Sanskrit, inside a temple in Mumbai, India, Friday,
July 14, 2023. 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, the country's
space agency said. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit,
blasts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India,
Friday, July 14, 2023. 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, the
country's space agency said. A successful landing would make India the
fourth country, after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, to
achieve the feat. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit,
blasts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India,
Friday, July 14, 2023. 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, the
country's space agency said. A successful landing would make India the
fourth country, after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, to
achieve the feat. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit,
blasts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India,
Friday, July 14, 2023. 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, the
country's space agency said. A successful landing would make India the
fourth country, after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, to
achieve the feat. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit,
lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India,
Friday, July 14, 2023. 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, the
country's space agency said. A successful landing would make India the
fourth country, after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, to
achieve the feat. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit,
blasts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India,
Friday, July 14, 2023. 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, the
country's space agency said. A successful landing would make India the
fourth country, after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, to
achieve the feat. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
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APTOPIX India Lunar Mission
Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit,
blasts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India,
Friday, July 14, 2023. 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, the
country's space agency said. A successful landing would make India the
fourth country, after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, to
achieve the feat. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)ASSOCIATED PRESSMore
51
AIJAZ RAHI and ASHOK SHARMA
Updated Fri, July 14, 2023 at 7:21 AM PDT·4 min read
SRIHARIKOTA, India (AP) — An Indian spacecraft blazed its way toward the
far side of the moon Friday in a follow-up mission to its failed effort
nearly four years ago to land a rover on the lunar surface, the
country’s space agency said.

Chandrayaan-3, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, took off from a
launchpad in Sriharikota in southern India with an orbiter, a lander and
a rover, in a demonstration of India’s emerging space technology. The
spacecraft embarked on a journey that is expected to last slightly over
a month before landing on the moon’s surface later in August.

Applause and cheers swept through mission control at Satish Dhawan Space
Center, where the Indian Space Research Organization’s engineers and
scientists celebrated as they monitored the launch of the spacecraft.
Thousands of Indians cheered outside the mission control center and
waved the national flag as they watched the spacecraft rise into the sky.

“Congratulations India. Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey towards
the moon,” ISRO Director Sreedhara Panicker Somanath said shortly after
the launch.

A successful landing would make India the fourth country — after the
United States, the former Soviet Union, and China — to achieve the feat.

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.

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 that 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 ISRO, the crash was caused
by a software glitch.

The $140-million mission in 2019 was intended to study permanently
shadowed moon craters that are thought to contain water deposits and
were confirmed by India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008.

Story continues
Somanath said the main objective of the mission this time was a safe and
soft landing on the moon. He said the Indian space agency has perfected
the art of reaching up to the moon, “but it is the landing that the
agency is working on.”

Numerous countries and private companies are in a race to successfully
land a spacecraft on the lunar surface. In April, a Japanese company’s
spacecraft apparently crashed while attempting to land on the moon. An
Israeli nonprofit tried to achieve a similar feat in 2019, but its
spacecraft was destroyed on impact.

With nuclear-armed India emerging as the world’s fifth-largest economy,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist government is eager to show
off the country’s prowess in security and technology.

“Chandrayaan-3 scripts a new chapter in India’s space odyssey. It soars
high, elevating the dreams and ambitions of every Indian,” Modi said in
a tweet after the launch.

India is using research from space and elsewhere to solve problems at
home. Its space program has already helped develop satellite,
communication and remote-sensing technologies and has been used to gauge
underground water levels and predict weather in the country, which is
prone to cycles of drought and flood.

“This is a very critical mission,” said Pallava Bagla, a science writer
and co-author of books on India’s space exploration, adding that India
will require soft landing technology if it wants to attempt more
missions to the moon.

India is also looking forward to its first mission to the International
Space Station next year, in collaboration with the United States as part
of agreements between Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden at the White
House last month.

This one-off visit by an Indian astronaut to the International Space
Station will not hamper India’s own program, which aims to launch an
Indian astronaut from Indian soil on an Indian rocket in late 2024,
Bagla said.

As part of its own space program, active since the 1960s, India has
launched satellites for itself and other countries, and successfully put
one in orbit around Mars in 2014.