For the second time, India is attempting to land a spacecraft on the Moon without a crew. The Chandrayaan-3 mission The launch to the Moon is scheduled to begin on Friday at 2:35 p.m. local time – 11:05 a.m. Central European Time, as announced by the Indian space agency ISRO.
If the mission is successful, India would be the fourth country to land on the Moon in a controlled manner. Previously, only the United States, the Soviet Union and China could do this. The aim of the mission is to demonstrate that it is possible to land successfully, ISRO said. The spacecraft is also expected to carry out various experiments and analyzes on the previously unexplored south polar region of the Moon. If all goes as planned, the lander will arrive on August 23 or 24.
In 2019, India’s first attempt at a soft moon landing failed. During the Chandrayaan-2 mission, the landing module crashed on the surface of the Earth’s satellite. The space agency later told Parliament in New Delhi that there had been braking problems during its approach to the Moon. India had already launched another mission: the first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, was launched in 2008 and circled the Moon without landing there.
