BENGALURU, Aug 23 (Reuters) – India was hours away from its second attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon on Wednesday, a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and the country’s position as a space power, just days after it a similar Russian lander. it crashed.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will attempt to land on the lunar south pole at around 6:04 p.m. local time (1234 GMT) on Wednesday, less than a week after Luna-25 From Russia failed mission.
The India mission (Chandrayaan means “moon vehicle” in Hindi and Sanskrit) is their second attempt to land there. In 2019, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully deployed an orbiter, but its lander crashed.
On Wednesday, ISRO said it was all set to activate the spacecraft’s automatic landing sequence, activating the algorithm that will take over once it reaches the designated point and help it land.
“Landing on the (moon’s) south pole would actually allow India to explore whether there is water ice on the moon. And this is very important for cumulative data and science on the geology of the moon,” said Carla Filotico , partner and CEO of the consulting firm SpaceTec Partners.
A few hours before the scheduled landing, the mood was rosy at the spacecraft’s command center on the outskirts of Bengaluru as ISRO officials and scientists hovered over large jumbo screens monitoring the lander.
People perform ‘havan’ (traditional Hindu fire ritual) as part of a special prayer for the safe landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon, in New Delhi, India, August 23, 2023. REUTERS/Adnan abidi Purchase license rights
The anticipation and enthusiasm for the landing was feverish, with headlines in newspapers and news channels running countdown timers to the landing.
Prayers were held at places of worship of all religions in the country, and schoolchildren waved the Indian tricolor as they waited for live projections of the landing.
Children gathered on the banks of the Ganges river, considered sacred by Hindus, to pray for a safe landing, and mosques in several places offered special prayers. At a Sikh temple, known as a gurduwara, in the capital New Delhi, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri offered prayers for Chandrayaan.
“Not only economically, but India is also making scientific and technological progress,” Puri told reporters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will watch the landing from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS summit.
The rugged terrain makes landing at the South Pole difficult, and a first landing would be historic. The region’s water ice could supply fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions.
For India, a successful moon landing would mark its emergence as a space power, as the Modi government seeks to stimulate investment in private space launches and related satellite-based businesses.
Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bengaluru, written by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, edited by Gerry Doyle and Angus MacSwan
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