India launches Chandrayaan moon mission a week after it was aborted

This was published 11 months ago

India launches Chandrayaan moon mission a week after it was aborted


Scientists at the mission control centre burst into applause as the rocket lifted off in clear weather as scheduled at 2.34pm from Sriharikota in southern India. K. Sivan, head of India's space agency, said the rocket successfully injected the spacecraft into orbit.

The spacecraft - named Chandrayaan, the Sanskrit word for "moon craft" - is scheduled to land on the lunar south pole in September and send a rover to explore water deposits confirmed by a previous mission that orbited the moon.

If India did manage the soft landing, it would be only the fourth to do so, following the US, Russia and China.




India's launch coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission this month. It came at a time when the world's biggest space agencies are returning their gaze to the moon, seen as an ideal testing ground for technologies required for deep space exploration, and with the confirmed discovery of water, as a possible pit stop along the way. The US is working to send a manned spacecraft to the moon's south pole by 2024.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country's lunar program will get a substantial boost, writing on Twitter that the country's existing knowledge of the moon "will be significantly enhanced."

Sivan said at a news conference that the successful launch of the spacecraft was the "beginning of India's historic journey" to the moon.

The launch of the $US141 million moon mission a week earlier was called off less than an hour before liftoff because of a "technical snag." Media reports said the launch was aborted after scientists from the Indian Space Research Organisation identified a leak while filling helium in the rocket's cryogenic engine. The space agency neither confirmed nor denied the reports, saying instead that the problem had been identified and corrected.



India put a satellite into orbit around Mars in the nation's first interplanetary mission in 2013 and 2014.

With India poised to become the world's fifth-largest economy, Modi's ardently nationalist government is eager to show off the country's prowess in security and technology.

India successfully test-fired an anti-satellite weapon in March, which Modi said demonstrated the country's capacity as a space power alongside the United States, Russia and China.


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