India shoots for the moon with latest rocket launch

BENGALURU: India on Friday launches its latest attempt at an unmanned moon landing, the next frontier of a burgeoning, cut-price aerospace program rapidly closing in on the milestones set by global superpowers.

If successful, the mission would make the world’s most populous nation only the fourth country after Russia, the United States and China to achieve a controlled landing on the lunar surface.

The latest iteration of the Chandrayaan (“Mooncraft”) programme comes four years after an earlier attempt ended in failure, with ground crew losing contact moments before landing.

This time around, there is optimism that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will succeed, as it sets its sights on a future manned lunar mission.

The 14-day mission comes with a price tag of $74.6 million, according to media reports, and aims to successfully land a rover to explore the lunar surface.

A huge crowd is expected to attend the launch, scheduled for 2:35 pm local time (0905 GMT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre north of Chennai.

India’s space programme has grown considerably in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the moon in 2008.

In 2014, it became the first Asian nation to put a satellite into orbit around Mars, and three years later, the ISRO launched 104 satellites in a single mission.

The ISRO’s Gaganyaan (“Skycraft”) programme is slated to launch a three-day manned mission into Earth’s orbit by next year.