NEW DELHI—As part of its rising strength in space and technology, India landed a spacecraft near the moon's south pole on Wednesday, an unknown zone that scientists say might harbor important quantities of frozen water and other elements.
At 6:04 a.m. local time, a lander carrying a rover splashed down on the lunar surface, eliciting screams and congratulations from space experts in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru. Following a failed effort almost four years earlier, India made history by landing in the little-explored south pole area, joining the United States, the Soviet Union, and China in achieving a lunar landing.
The successful landing by India comes only days after Russia's Luna-25, which was headed for the same lunar location, spun out of control and crashed. It would have been Russia's first successful lunar landing in 47 years. The failure, according to Russia's president of the state-controlled space enterprise Roscosmos, was due to a lack of knowledge caused by a long pause in lunar study following the previous Soviet mission to the moon in 1976.
Excited and worried, people in India, the world's most populous country, swarmed around televisions in offices, stores, restaurants, and homes. Thousands of people prayed for the mission's success with oil lamps on river banks, temples, and religious sites, including the holy city of Varanasi in northern India.
On July 14, India's Chandrayaan-3—"moon craft" in Sanskrit—launched from a launchpad in Sriharikota, southern India.
"With the impending Chandrayaan-3 Mission, India's pursuit of space exploration reaches a remarkable milestone, poised to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface." "This achievement represents a significant step forward for Indian Science, Engineering, Technology, and Industry, symbolizing our nation's progress in space exploration," the Indian Space Research Organization said earlier on Wednesday in a statement.
A successful Chandrayaan-3 landing, they added, would be significant in feeding youth curiosity and kindling an enthusiasm for exploration. "It creates a profound sense of pride and unity as we collectively celebrate Indian science and technology prowess." It will help to develop an environment of scientific inquiry and creativity," according to the group.
Many countries and commercial corporations are interested in the south pole region because continuously shadowed craters may contain frozen water useful to future astronaut flights.
Chandrayaan-3's six-wheeled lander and rover module is outfitted with payloads that will offer scientific data on the features of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions.
In 2019, India's earlier effort to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon's little-explored south pole failed. It entered lunar orbit but lost contact with its lander, which crashed while descending to deploy a rover to look for evidence of water. The disaster was caused by a software error, according to a failure analysis report filed to the ISRO.
The $140 million mission in 2019 was designed to investigate permanently shadowed lunar craters likely to have water deposits, as proven by India's Chandrayaan-1 orbiter mission in 2008.
After becoming as the world's fifth-largest economy last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist administration is eager to highlight India's increasing status as a technological and space superpower. A successful lunar trip fits with Modi's vision of an emerging India establishing its position among the world's elite, and it would help boost his popularity ahead of a vital general election next year.
The expectation for a successful landing grew following Russia's failed effort and as India's regional competitor China strives for new space milestones. China deployed a three-person crew for its orbiting space station in May, with the goal of landing people on the moon by the end of the decade. Since fatal border conflicts in 2020, relations between India and China have deteriorated.
Several nations and private firms are competing to land a spacecraft on the moon's surface. A Japanese company's spacecraft crashed in April while attempting to land on the moon. In 2019, an Israeli non-profit attempted a same accomplishment, but their spacecraft was destroyed on impact.
Japan wants to send a lunar lander to the moon this weekend as part of an X-ray telescope mission, while two American firms are competing to set landers on the moon by the end of the year, one near the south pole. NASA intends to put people in the lunar south pole in the next years, taking use of the frozen water in craters.
