India set to become first to land on moon’s south pole following Russia Luna-25 crash
Eden Villalovas
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India is poised to become the first country to land on the south polar region of the moon after Russia’s spacecraft crashed-landed over the weekend.
The Chandrayaan-3 probe, which blasted off on July 14, is on course to touch down on Wednesday. The probe began its last phase of the mission on Thursday when the lander module successfully separated from the propulsion module.
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The Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, said the lander Vikram completed its second and final deboosting maneuver, reducing the orbit of the Chandrayaan-3 and preparing the spacecraft for a controlled landing.
“Chandrayaan-3 scripts a new chapter in India’s space odyssey. It soars high, elevating the dreams and ambitions of every Indian,” India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X following the launch. “This momentous achievement is a testament to our scientists’ relentless dedication.”
The mission marks India’s second attempt at a soft landing on the moon’s south pole. India’s Chandrayaan-2 failed in 2019 after a lunar crash.
Russia and India were in a global space race to become the first country to land a rover on the moon’s uncharted south pole, but the competition fell short when Russia’s Luna-25 mission crashed into the moon on Aug. 20.
On Sunday, Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, lost contact with the spacecraft less than an hour after the engine started up to enter the moon’s orbit. The Luna-25, which launched on Aug. 11, experienced an “emergency situation” on Saturday afternoon and failed to get into the right position to pre-launch.
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“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon,” read a statement from Roscosmos.
The mission controllers reportedly operated successfully until the craft’s last maneuver, according to Natan Eismont, a senior scientist of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences who led scientific operations of Luna-25 but was not directly involved with the mission, according to the New York Times.