India Successfully Launches Third Lunar Mission

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Facts

  • The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar exploration mission, on a Launch Vehicle Mark-III rocket from Sriharikota off the country’s East Coast on Friday.1
  • Chandrayaan-3 — Hindi for "Moon craft" — follows the ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2, which failed a desired soft landing on the Moon in September 2019 after the lander’s trajectory diverged from the planned path at an altitude of about 1.3 miles from the lunar surface.2
  • The mission is reportedly designed to deploy a lander and rover near the Moon’s south pole on Aug. 23. One of its payloads is expected to “look at Earth from Moon to study its habitable planet-like features and use this information to explore exoplanets in the future.”3
  • NASA is collaborating with India — which has reportedly spent about $75M on its third Moon mission — to send Indian astronauts to the International Space Station in 2024 and into the Moon’s orbit by 2025.4
  • If successful, Chandrayaan-3 will make India only the fourth nation — after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China — to have touched down a lander on the Moon’s surface. And the first nation to land near its south pole.5
  • In 2014, India became the first Asian country to reach Mars when it put the Mangalyaan — Hindi for Mars craft — probe into orbit around the Red Planet for $72M.6

Sources: 1NDTV, 2New York Times, 3The Times of India, 4VOA, 5Al Jazeera, and 6Washington Post.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by The Indian Express. India is at the forefront of cutting space costs, which is why the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission could make New Delhi a future leader in the space market. In addition, Chandrayaan-3 could bolster investor confidence in India's domestic space technology, propel technological advancements in its science and research missions, and help shape the country's role in future lunar exploration. The Moon landing is just the start of bigger space adventures for ISRO.
  • Narrative B, as provided by The Space Review. Chandrayaan-3 is trying to do what Chandrayaan-2 couldn't at the cost of millions of taxpayer money. Spending $75M on a mission that most likely will fail — landing on the Moon is challenging as it requires multiple high-tech systems to align precisely — at a time when the economic growth is stagnant is incomprehensible and irresponsible While India may have great space scientists, most of its space exploration missions are glitzy technology shows rather than long-term space voyages that collect significant data.

Predictions