Published by: Vivek Dubey
India's space agency ISRO launched Chandrayaan-3, a lunar mission with an orbiter, a lander and a rover, from Sriharikota on Friday.
The spacecraft is set to land on the moon's surface around August 23, after a journey of over a month.
The mission aims to demonstrate India's emerging space technology and explore the properties of lunar soil and rocks.
India's previous mission, Chandrayaan-2, failed to land a rover softly on the lunar surface in 2019 due to a software glitch.
Chandrayaan-2 had entered the lunar orbit and confirmed the presence of water deposits in the permanently shadowed moon craters.
Chandrayaan-3 has improved landing technology and payloads to achieve a safe and soft landing.
If successful, India will become the fourth country to land a spacecraft softly on the moon, after the US, the Soviet Union, and China.
The moon's far side is little-explored and has potential scientific and commercial value.
Several countries and private companies are also trying to land on the moon, but some have faced failures.
India is the world's fifth-largest economy and a nuclear-armed nation with nationalist ambitions.
India's space program has helped develop satellite, communication and remote-sensing technologies that benefit various sectors in the country.
India is also looking forward to its first mission to the International Space Station next year, in collaboration with the US.
India has its human spaceflight program, called Gaganyaan, which aims to send an Indian astronaut to space on an Indian rocket by 2024.
This program will not be affected by the one-off visit by an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station next year.
India hopes to achieve self-reliance and global recognition in space exploration through Gaganyaan.
As part of its space program, active since the 1960s, India has launched satellites for itself and other countries, and successfully put one in orbit around Mars in 2014.
As of April, India has launched 424 satellites for 34 countries, including Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
The ISRO has earned approximately Rs 1.1 billion ($13.4 million) in the past five years from the launch of foreign satellites.