India first to land near moon’s south pole after Russia fails

INDIA became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole after Russia’s attempt at a lunar touchdown in the same area ended in failure following an engine malfunction.

Chandrayaan-3 – India’s spacecraft that launched last month – achieved soft landing at 6.04 pm local time on Wednesday (Aug 23), after Russia’s Luna-25 crashed into the moon on Sunday. A rover, named Pragyan, or “wisdom”, is set to analyse the chemical make-up of the moon’s surface and search for water over the course of one lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 days on earth.

India has also become the second country, along with China, to have an operating rover on the moon.

A successful touchdown lifts India’s prestige in the global space race, after the country suffered a setback from a failed moon mission in 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to bolster the country’s place among the world’s space-faring nations and in June, India signed the Artemis Accords, a US-backed initiative with more than two dozen other countries to govern joint missions and civilian space exploration.

The latest moon landing is a historic moment for the world’s most populous nation, as it rapidly closes in on milestones set by global space powers.

Chandrayaan-3, which means “mooncraft” in Sanskrit, was scheduled to touch down shortly after 6 pm India time (1230 GMT) near the little-explored lunar south pole.

“India reaches for the moon,” the front-page headline of The Times of India read on Wednesday ahead of the landing, with hopes for its success dominating local news. “It’s D-Day for moon mission,” The Hindustan Times said.

India’s triumph comes just days after Russia’s first moon mission in almost 50 years, destined for the same region, crashed on the lunar surface.

Former Indian space chief K Sivan earlier said the latest photos transmitted back home by the lander gave every indication that the final leg of the voyage would succeed.

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“It is giving some encouragement that we will be able to achieve the landing mission without any problem,” he had told AFP on Monday.

Confidence

Sivan added that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had made corrections after the failure of four years ago, when scientists lost contact with the previous lunar module moments before its slated landing.

“Chandrayaan-3 is going to go with more ruggedness,” he had said. “We have confidence, and we expect that everything will go smoothly.”

The mission was launched nearly six weeks ago in front of thousands of cheering spectators, but took much longer to reach the moon than the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived in a matter of days.

India is using rockets much less powerful than those the United States used back then, meaning the probe had to orbit earth several times to gain speed before embarking on its month-long lunar trajectory.

The spacecraft’s lander, Vikram, which means “valour” in Sanskrit, detached from its propulsion module last week and had been sending back images of the moon’s surface since entering lunar orbit on Aug 5.

A day ahead of the landing, the ISRO said on social media that the landing was proceeding on schedule, and that its mission control complex was “(buzzing) with energy and excitement”.

“Smooth sailing is continuing,” the agency posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

India has a comparatively low-budget aerospace programme, but it has grown considerably in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the moon in 2008.

The latest mission comes with a price tag of US$74.6 million – far lower than those of other countries, and a testament to India’s frugal space engineering.

Experts say India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing space technology, and thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts’ wages.

In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to put a satellite into orbit around Mars, and it is slated to launch a three-day manned mission into Earth’s orbit by next year.

Very, very important

Sivan, the former ISRO chief, said India’s efforts to explore the relatively unmapped lunar south pole would make a “very, very important” contribution to scientific knowledge.

Only Russia, the United States and China have previously achieved a controlled landing on the lunar surface.

Russia launched its own lunar probe earlier in August – its first in nearly half a century.

If it had been successful, it would have beaten Chandrayaan-3 by a matter of days to become the first mission of any nation to make a controlled landing around the lunar south pole.

But the Luna-25 probe crash-landed after an unspecified incident as it was preparing for descent.

Punishing sanctions since the outset of the Ukraine war have affected Russia’s space industry, which has also been beleaguered by corruption and a lack of innovation and partnerships. BLOOMBERG, AFP