India lunar craft lands safely on Moon: space agency
An Indian spacecraft landed on the moon on Wednesday, the country’s space agency said, in a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and India's standing as a space power, just days after a similar Russian lander crashed. For India, the successful landing marks its emergence as a space power as the government looks to spur investment in private space launches and related satellite-based businesses. People across the country were glued to television screens and said prayers as the spacecraft approached the surface. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the lunar south pole, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. This was India's second attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon and comes less than a week after Russia's Luna-25 mission failed. “This success belongs to all of humanity. And it will help moon missions by other countries in the future,” the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after the landing. “I’m confident that all countries in the world, including those from the global south, are capable of achieving such feats. We can all aspire for the moon and beyond.” On the social media platform, X, Modi called it a "historic day for India's space sector”. Chandrayaan means "moon vehicle" in Hindi and Sanskrit. In 2019, ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander crashed. On Wednesday, ISRO said it was all set to activate the automatic landing sequence of the spacecraft, triggering the algorithm that will take over once it reaches the designated position and help it land. The Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain functional for two weeks, running a series of experiments including a spectrometre analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface. (Additional reporting by Reuters and AFP)