India joins the lunar race: the ship goes to the South Pole

India is preparing a historic mission to the moon, seeking to strengthen its position as a space power. The rocket with the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is to be launched from a spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

India’s space agency has completed final preparations for the launch of a rocket that will attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon and mark the country’s rise as a power in space exploration.

As recalled by Reuters, so far only the United States, the former Soviet Union and China have made successful landings on the moon. A Japanese startup attempt earlier this year ended in a lander crash.

Built on a budget of just under $75 million, Chandrayaan 3 is due to lift off from India’s main spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh at 1435 local time (0905 GMT) on Friday.

If all goes according to plan, the 43.5-meter LVM3 launch vehicle will place the spacecraft into an elliptical Earth orbit before it orbits the Moon for a scheduled landing around August 23rd.

The spacecraft will be the first to land on the moon’s south pole, an area of ​​particular interest to space agencies and private space companies due to the presence of water ice that could support a future space station.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said it had completed a flight readiness check ahead of its scheduled launch, adding on Friday morning that it had completed fueling the rocket’s core and proceeded to fuel its upper stage.

Several ISRO scientists were shown in footage from the Indian news agency ANI as they traveled with a handheld model of the Chandrayana-3 to a popular temple in southern India on Thursday to receive pre-launch blessings.

The launch, Reuters notes, is the country’s first major mission since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government announced a policy to encourage investment in private space launches and related satellite-based businesses.

Chandrayan, which means “lunar lander” in Sanskrit, includes a 2-meter-tall lander designed to place the rover near the moon’s south pole, where it is expected to operate for two weeks, conducting a series of experiments.

But analysts say the launch also has a secondary mission: to signal that India is open to business in the accelerating private sector space race.

“A successful mission will enhance India’s global profile and bring indirect benefits to the commercial side of the industry,” said Aji Lele, a consultant at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Research and Analysis in New Delhi. ISRO’s Chandrayaan 2 mission in 2020 successfully deployed an orbiter, but its lander and rover were destroyed in a crash near where Chandrayaan 3 would attempt to land.

Since 2020, when India opened up to private launches, the number of space startups has more than doubled. Late last year, Skyroot Aerospace, backed by Singapore’s GIC Sovereign Wealth Fund, launched India’s first private rocket.

During a visit to the US last month, Modi and President Joe Biden pledged to deepen cooperation in space.

Recall that earlier China shared plans to send astronauts to the moon by 2030. Chinese officials have unveiled new plans for a manned lunar mission. Zhang Hailian, Deputy Chief Engineer of the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), unveiled a preliminary plan at the aerospace summit in Wuhan. The declared mission is part of a project to create a lunar research station. According to Zhang, the expedition will study how best to build the facility, as well as carry out missions to explore the moon. Two boosters will send a lander to the surface of Earth’s natural satellite and a manned spacecraft into lunar orbit before they dock with each other. After docking, the Chinese astronauts will enter the lander, which is used to descend to the lunar surface. While on the Moon, mission members will collect samples and conduct “scientific research” before heading to the lander and onto a spacecraft waiting in orbit to bring them back to Earth.