India successfully launched a rocket to the moon Monday, a week after technical issues caused the mission to be aborted.
The unmanned lunar rocket, named Chandrayaan-2, launched from Satish Dhawan Space Center at 2:43 p.m. local time (5:13 a.m. EST) and is scheduled to land on the moon’s south pole in September. The spacecraft will hang out in Earth’s orbit for 23 days before it travels into the moon’s orbit.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, praised the successful launch on Twitter.
Special moments that will be etched in the annals of our glorious history!
The launch of #Chandrayaan2 illustrates the prowess of our scientists and the determination of 130 crore Indians to scale new frontiers of science.
Every Indian is immensely proud today! pic.twitter.com/v1ETFneij0
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 22, 2019
Indian at heart, Indian in spirit!
What would make every Indian overjoyed is the fact that #Chandrayaan2 is a fully indigenous mission.
It will have an Orbiter for remote sensing the Moon and also a Lander-Rover module for analysis of lunar surface.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 22, 2019
The $145 million mission was originally scheduled for July 15, but was delayed due to a “technical snag [that] was observed in [the] launch vehicle system.” If India’s endeavor is successful, the country will be the fourth nation to land on the moon, joining the United States, Russia, and China.
In 2008, India’s first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, discovered water molecules on the moon’s surface and crashed an impact probe into the moon’s south pole in a controlled landing. Chandrayaan-2 is a much larger technical undertaking.
To conserve fuel, the Indian Space Research Organization chose a lengthy circular route that would take advantage of Earth’s gravitational field, according to the BBC. Unlike the Apollo 11 mission, which took four days to reach the moon, India’s mission will take more than six weeks.
Once the orbiter is in place, mission control will separate the lunar lander from the orbiter and guide it to the moon’s surface. In June, the organization’s chairman, Kailasavadivvo Sivan said those 15 minutes “are going to be the most terrifying moments for us.”
The lunar lander will search the moon’s surface for water and minerals and measure “moonquakes” for 14 days. The orbiter will study the moon’s atmosphere and topography from afar as part of a lengthier year-long mission.
The launch came just two days after tributes around the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which took the first humans, three Americans, to the moon in 1969.
