India’s spacecraft prepares to land on moon on 2nd try

NEW DELHI — India was counting down to landing a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023 — an unchartered territory that scientists believe could hold important reserves of frozen water and precious elements.

A lander with a rover inside was orbiting before attempting to touch down on the lunar surface, creating an agonizing wait for India’s space scientists in the southern city of Bengaluru. India is making its second attempt in four years to join the United States, the Soviet Union and China in achieving the landmark.

India unexpectedly got into a race with Russia, which had planned to land its Luna-25 spacecraft in the same lunar region on Monday, Aug. 21. But Luna-25 crashed into the moon after it spun into an uncontrolled orbit. It would have been the first successful Russian lunar landing after a gap of 47 years. Russia’s head of the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos attributed the failure to the lack of expertise due to the long break in lunar research that followed the last Soviet mission to the moon in 1976.

India’s Chandrayaan-3 — “moon craft” in Sanskrit — took off from a launchpad in Sriharikota in southern India on July 14, heading for the far side of the moon.

The mission follows a failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover on the lunar surface to conduct scientific experiments. / AP