India staked recent claim as a national superpower in space on Wednesday, landing its Chandrayaan-3 mission safely on the moon’s unexplored south pole.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft launched last month and touched down on the lunar surface around 8:34 a.m. ET.
The feat makes India the fourth country to land on the moon, and the primary to land on one among the moon’s lunar poles. Previously, Russia (then the Soviet Union), the U.S. and China landed spacecraft successfully on the moon.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tuned in to the livestream of the landing from Johannesburg, where he’s attending the fifteenth annual BRICS summit of emerging markets.
“All of the people of the world, the people of each country and region: India’s successful moon mission just isn’t just India’s alone … this success belongs to all of humanity,” Modi said, speaking on the Indian Space Research Organization webcast of the event.
“We will all aspire for the moon, and beyond,” Modi added.
The Indian Space Research Organisation mission control room celebrates the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
ISRO
The lunar south pole has emerged as a spot of exploration interest because of recent discoveries of traces of water ice on the moon. India previously attempted a lunar south pole landing in September 2019, but a software failure caused the Chandrayaan-2 mission to crash into the surface.
“[The south pole is] really a really interesting, historical, scientific and geologic area that a variety of countries try to get at that may function a base for future exploration,” Wendy Whitman Cobb, professor of strategy and security studies on the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, told CNBC.Â
Whitman Cobb added that the invention of water on the south pole of the moon is “really necessary for future exploration,” because it could function a source of fuel for rockets and spacecraft.
The moon’s surface is seen below the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on August 20, 2023 because it orbited in preparation for landing.
ISRO
A rising space power
People wave Indian flags as an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh on July 14, 2023.
R.satish Babu | Afp | Getty Images
Modi visited the U.S. in June, during which he signed agreements alongside President Joe Biden to hitch the Artemis Accords and further collaborate on missions between ISRO and NASA.
Next yr, the space agencies are expected to work together to fly Indian astronauts to the International Space Station.
India has also done more with lower than its top global counterparts, with ISRO’s annual budget a fraction of NASA’s. In 2020, ISRO estimated the Chandrayaan-3 mission would cost about $75 million.
The mission was originally slated for 2021, but was delayed by the Covid pandemic.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated ISRO on the successful landing in a post on X, the positioning formerly often known as Twitter, adding, “We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!”
