Modi set to hail India’s growing clout at G20 after successful lunar mission

Name: India makes historic landing on the lunar south pole, becoming the 4th country to land on the moon
Uploaded: 2023-08-24T10:30:09.000Z
Duration: 3 min 10 s
Description: India makes historic landing on the lunar south pole, becoming the 4th country to land on the moon

India, the host of next month’s G20 summit, joins the US, the Soviet Union and China as only the fourth country to achieve a successful moon landing

India is looking to open the space sector to foreign investment as it eyes a five-fold increase in its share of the global launch market in the next decade

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People wave Indian flags as a rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lifts off from India on July 14. India joined the United States, the Soviet Union and China as only the fourth country to successfully land on the moon. Photo: AFP

Biman Mukherji

Published: 6:30pm, 24 Aug 2023

India’s moon rover exited the spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 on Thursday morning, hours after completing a historic landing on the unexplored south pole – a feat that was applauded worldwide and signalled a technological triumph for the world’s most populous nation.

“The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander and India took a walk on the moon!” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said exultantly, after the spacecraft shook off the dust from its landing on the highly-cratered side that holds the promise of water.

If the rover finds ice sheets on the moon’s surface, it could open up the possibility for humans to find a new habitation on it because it can provide fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions.

Chandrayaan-3 lifts off from Sriharikota, India. India’s previous Chandrayan mission successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander crashed. Photo: AP

After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India joined the United States, the Soviet Union and China as only the fourth country to achieve this milestone.

No other country, however, has been able to land a spacecraft on the moon’s treacherous dark side, the fag end of a journey that has been described as 20 minutes of terror because of the chances of crashing on the boulder-strewn surface.

India’s previous Chandrayan mission, which means “moon vehicle” in Hindi and Sanskrit, successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander crashed. Earlier this month, Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft failed after developing a snag during the pre-landing orbit.

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India makes historic landing on the lunar south pole, becoming the 4th country to land on the moon

Russian President Vladimir Putin joined hundreds of other dignitaries worldwide to congratulate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX with the goal of reducing space transport costs and to colonise Mars, too praised the country’s achievement.