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President Droupadi Murmu, on Friday visited an exhibition to showcase space technologies and achievements, at Bharat Mandapam, on the maiden <keyword id="22301946" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="National-Space-Day" source="keywords">National Space Day</keyword>. Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh and <keyword id="19915124" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ISRO" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="ISRO" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="ISRO">ISRO</keyword> Chairman S Somanath were also present. <keyword id="19939985" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="President-Murmu" source="keywords">President Murmu</keyword> extended her greetings on the occasion of the first National Space Day and welcomed the decision to celebrate Space Day on the day <keyword id="19990220" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chandrayaan" source="keywords">Chandrayaan</keyword> landed on the <keyword id="19899207" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="moon" source="keywords">Moon</keyword>. "It was a glorious moment for all the Indians when ISRO's Chandrayaan landed on the moon. I saw the live telecast of that moment, I was so proud that day like other Indians. To celebrate National Space Day on this occasion is a commendable step. I congratulate all of you on the first National Space Day. ISRO has achieved many feats since its inception". She also expressed her happiness with the student's participation in the event "Happy to see students' participation in this event." Highlighting the significance of <keyword id="19929542" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-exploration" source="keywords">space exploration</keyword>, she added "Space exploration has extended human's ability and help complete the imagination of humankind. Space exploration is exciting and challenging at the same time. Health, transportation, environment, energy, security and information technology are benefitted due to the growth in the <keyword id="20242397" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-sector" source="keywords">space sector</keyword>". The president termed the growth of the ISRO as extraordinary, "The growth of <keyword id="19895063" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="India" source="keywords">India</keyword>'s space sector is extraordinary, be it Mangalyan mission that was accomplished through minimum resources or launching more than 100 satellites at a time. we have achieved many such feats". She also praised the introduction of private players in the space sector in the country, "Introducing of the private sector in Indian has led to the formation of many <keyword id="22829456" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-start-ups" source="keywords">space start-ups</keyword> in India. This has allowed the youths of India to explore the space sector". Expressing her happiness about ISRO's plan to make <keyword id="20793131" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-mission" source="keywords">space mission</keyword> debris-free she said "I am happy that India is moving towards making India's space mission debris-free by 2030". India celebrated its first-ever National Space Day on Friday on the theme "Touching Lives While Touching the Moon: India's Space Saga". On 23 August 2023, India achieved a historic milestone when the Chandrayaan-3 lander completed a soft landing on the moon. This remarkable accomplishment made India the 4th country to accomplish this feat and the 1st to land on the lunar South Pole. In recognition of this achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared August 23 as National Space Day.

"A glorious moment for all Indians when Chandrayaan landed on moon" says President Murmu on National Space Day

New Delhi [India], July 13 (ANI): <keyword id="8011274" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="chandrayaan-3" source="Orion">Chandrayaan-3</keyword>, India's third lunar exploration mission, will make India the fourth country to land its spacecraft on the surface of the moon and demonstrate the country's abilities for safe and soft landing on lunar surface. The countdown for the launch of the mission began on Thursday at 14:35:17 IST ahead of take-off on Friday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The spacecraft will be launched on a GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle. This will be Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) follow-up attempt after the Chandrayaan-2 mission faced challenges during its soft landing in 2019. The 'Launch Rehearsal' simulating the entire launch preparation and process has been concluded by the ISRO. A day ahead of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, a team of ISRO scientists on Thursday visited and offered prayers at Tirupathi Venkatachalapathy Temple in Andhra Pradesh with a miniature model of Chandrayaan-3. If all goes well, Chandrayaan-3 will be the first spacecraft to land on Moon's South Pole, demonstrating India's technical prowess and bold spacefaring ambitions. Chandrayaan-3 mission will demonstrate a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, rover roving on the moon and conducting in-situ scientific experiments. ISRO invited citizens to witness the launch of the much-awaited Chandrayaan-3 from the viewing gallery at Sriharikota. During the Chandrayaan-2 mission, ISRO lost contact with the lander when it was just a notch away from the moon's surface. The journey from Earth to the moon for the to-be-launched spacecraft is estimated to take around a month and the landing is expected on August 23. Upon landing, it will operate for one lunar day, which is approximately 14 Earth days. One day on Moon is equal to 14 days on Earth. K Sivan, former director of ISRO, told that the success of mission Chandrayan-3 will give a morale boost to programs like Gaganyan. "We understood what went wrong with Chandrayan-2 when we could not land on the moon's surface, we recreated the failure modes and we ensured that this time we have success. The challenge is the same as Chandrayan-2, same environment for landing. This time we hope that we have done enough based on the lesson of Chandrayan-2 that gives us more confidence. In space there are always unknown unknowns...hope that all issues are addressed and that we emerge with success," he said. "We are getting tech landing on a celestial body. By landing successfully, we will acquire landing technology and it will be good for future generations. A number of scientific experiments are planned and scientists will have more knowledge of the moon's geology and the earth's origin," he added. Mylswamy Annadurai, Mission Director of Chandrayaan-1, said Chandrayaan-3 is a very important mission. "We have shown that we can orbit, but we could not do a soft landing, By doing so this time we can show that Chandrayan-1 was not an isolated success. Internationally, the world is looking back to the moon, the real seeding for that came from Chandrayaan-1. So we need to make this mission successful," he told ANI. "Hard lessons were learnt from Chandrayaan 1 and 2. At every step, we are supposed to have a plan B. There were some setbacks in Chandrayaan- 2. This time we are back on track. We are clear on what we want to do and it will ensure we can softly land on the surface of the moon. The target of landing is also larger, all elements have been tested multiple times, we hope this is a success...," he added. Chandrayaan-3's development phase commenced in January 2020 with plans to launch it somewhere in 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in the development process. The major discovery of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, launched in 2008, is the detection of water (H2O) and hydroxyl (OH) on the lunar surface. Data also revealed their enhanced abundance towards the polar region. The primary science objective of the mission was to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both the near and far sides of the Moon and to conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface with high spatial resolution, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre under ISRO had said. Moon serves as a repository of earth's past and a successful lunar mission by India will help in enhancing life on Earth and prepare to explore the rest of the solar system - and beyond. Director of Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO), S Somanath, had said that if everything goes well, the spacecraft will land on the moon on August 23. The date has been decided based on sunrise on the moon but if it gets delayed, then landing may take place next month, he said. (ANI)

Chandrayaan 3: Countdown starts for India's third moon mission

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-india-israel-failed-moon-landings-failed-final-descent-2019-9">India</a> plans to build on its historic lunar landing by sending people to the moon.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-india-attempt-first-ever-moon-landing-2023-8">India landed its first lunar spacecraft</a>, and the first robotic mission near <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-scientist-microbial-life-hiding-on-moon-south-pole-2023-6">the moon's south pole</a>.</li></ul>Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="narendra-modi" source="Orion">Narendra Modi</keyword> confirmed <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>'s intention to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">send people to the moon</a> in the near future as the nation celebrated the successful landing of the world's first-ever robotic mission to the lunar south pole region.India's Chandrayaan-3 probe defeated all odds on August 23 after it managed to successfully land near the south pole of the moon, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-launches-mission-beat-us-india-moon-south-pole-rover-2023-8">beating competing nations</a> to the strategically important site. With the landing, India has become the fourth nation — after Russia, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-china-race-to-the-moon-photos-launches-2022-11">the US, and China</a> — to land on the moon."It definitely puts them on the international stage as an emerging space power," Robert Braun, head of space exploration at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, told Insider.The nation will build on this mission success by launching its first <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">crewed mission to the moon</a>, Modi said in Hindi during a livestream of the landing, Sky News <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/india-moon-landing-live-updates-chandrayaan-3-making-historic-bid-to-reach-south-pole-of-lunar-surface-12945600" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.<div type="image" title="room full of men watches narendra modi on a screen under a white ceiling" height="1499" width="1999" msid="102995553" hostid="261"></div>"India is now on the moon," said Modi, per the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-asia-india-66576580#:~:text=Chandrayaan%2D3's%20lander%20touches%20down,to%20the%20hunt%20for%20water." target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC</a>. The nation "will look into a human flight mission as well for the future," he said, per Sky News. <h2>Indian astronauts to Earth's orbit and beyond</h2><div type="image" title="man poses in white waving astronaut uniform with india flag patches on each shoulder" height="1500" width="2250" msid="102995554" hostid="261"></div>India has previously said it will attempt a crewed mission to low-Earth orbit by late <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/gaganyaan-launch-delayed-manned-mission-now-in-fourth-quarter-of-2024/articleshow/96406198.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024</a>, the Times of India reported."India is showing and proving that the sky is not the limit," said Modi per Sky News.<div type="image" title="white rocket with two boosters on its sides launches through clouds with flames shooting out of boosters" height="1500" width="1999" msid="102995555" hostid="261"></div>Per the <a href="https://www.isro.gov.in/Gaganyaan.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indian Space Research Organisation,</a> India plans to first launch two uncrewed missions, Gaganyaan 1 and 2, the first of which is planned by the end of this year. The missions should test the capacity of the nation's rocket, LVM3.This should be followed by the nation's first crewed mission, which will aim to send three astronauts to low-Earth orbit for a three-day mission.<h2>India nailed a difficult feat amid multiple moon crashes</h2><div type="image" title="surface of moon grey rocky cratered with luna 25 spacecraft piece visible in upper left corner" height="1500" width="2000" msid="102995557" hostid="261"></div>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-space-mission-chandrayaan-2-set-to-land-on-moon-2019-9">Chandrayaan-3 mission</a>, which successfully landed the <keyword id="1091" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vikram" source="Orion">Vikram</keyword> lander near the south pole of the moon, cemented India's position as a frontrunner in the race to the moon.The south polar region is strategically important because scientists <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-new-moon-rover-sample-water-ice-lunar-south-pole-2019-10">believe water ice</a> is present in the area. The hope is this water could someday support humans living on the moon and help manufacture fuel for rockets launching from the moon to Mars.Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, tried to land its own robotic mission near the south pole of the moon, but on August 20 it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-luna-25-crash-land-on-moon-2023-8">misfired its engines and crashed</a>.Both Japanese private <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-company-ispace-fears-moon-probe-crash-landed-2023-4">company ispace</a> and Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL have also crashed on the moon in recent years.India's first attempt at the lunar south pole region in 2019, called Chandrayaan-2, crashed as well. Clearly the Indian space agency learned a lot from that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-moon-landings-on-lunar-south-pole-crashed-2023-8">failed landing</a>."Last time they got to the playoffs, if you will, and this time they won the Super Bowl," Braun said.Correction: August 28, 2023 — An earlier version of this article misstated Robert Braun's title. He is head of space exploration at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, not head of a Space Exploration Center there.Correction August 23, 2023: An earlier version of this article misstated which entities have tried to land on the lunar south pole. Two countries have attempted this feat so far: India and Russia. Only India has succeeded. An earlier version of this article also misstated the planned orbit of India's first crewed mission. It's expected to orbit Earth. This post has also been updated with new information. It was originally published on August 23, 2023.Editor's note September 1, 2023: This article has been updated to clarify that India's spacecraft landed in the lunar south pole region, not on the point of the lunar south pole.

India wants to fly its own astronauts to the moon, after becoming the first nation to land near the lunar south pole

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-india-attempt-first-ever-moon-landing-2023-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">India landed the first spacecraft near the moon's south pole</a>, after it and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-space-program-in-decline-china-leaping-forward-us-intel-2023-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Russia</a> both crashed there on prior missions.</li><li>Landing on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">the moon</a>, Mars, or any other space object, is one of the most complex parts of spaceflight.</li></ul>India landed a small robot near <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">the moon's</a> south pole on August 23, becoming the first nation to touch down at the strategic spot and the fourth nation to ever land on the moon.The feat comes just days after Russia crash-landed there, and four years after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-india-israel-failed-moon-landings-failed-final-descent-2019-9">India's first attempt crashed</a> into the lunar south pole region."Spaceflight is hard, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-releases-mars-landing-video-perseverance-rover-2021-2">landing on another planetary surface</a> is among the hardest things that we do in spaceflight. So it's the hardest of the hard," Robert Braun, head of space exploration at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, told Insider.Braun has worked on landing and descent teams for multiple <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-landing-nasa-perseverance-rover-touches-down-in-jezero-crater-2021-2">NASA missions to Mars</a>, including the Mars Polar Lander, which lost communication during its descent and was presumed crashed."It's not that people didn't try. It's not that people didn't do their all. It's not that they weren't supported. They probably were," he added.There are countless tiny reasons a landing might fail, but in these cases, it boils down to a simple reality: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-launches-mission-beat-us-india-moon-south-pole-rover-2023-8">Russia and India</a> were trying to do something incredibly difficult, for the first time, in a place nobody has done it before.India's success, especially in light of the much <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-asia-india-66576580">better-funded</a> Russia's failure, is a huge triumph.<h2>Why Russia was shooting for the moon</h2><div type="image" title="rocket launching into cloudy blue skies" height="1500" width="1999" msid="102993123" hostid="261"></div>A lot was riding on the Russian mission, called Luna-25. It was Russia's first attempt to land on the moon in decades, since the Soviet Union fell.It was the country's first bid at the lunar south pole, which is especially valuable space real estate because of its frozen-water reserves. Moon-minded nations are eyeing those reserves, because the water can be broken down into oxygen and hydrogen. That can serve as fuel to launch <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/buzz-aldrin-moon-should-be-launch-pad-for-mars-2018-6">rockets from the moon toward Mars</a>, without the gravity burden of an Earth-based launch.Both the US and China also hope to land near the lunar south pole before the end of the decade.If it had succeeded, Luna-25 was also poised to prove that Russia doesn't need Europe or the US to become a major power in deep space. The European Space Agency was previously a collaborator on the mission, but backed out after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/invasion-of-ukraine-was-putin-intelligence-fiasco-spy-expert-says-2023-8">Russia invaded Ukraine</a> last year.<h2>Landing on the moon for the first time is extra hard</h2><div type="image" title="man sitting in front of microphones holds up gold models of a lunar orbiter and a lander as if play flying them" height="1500" width="2397" msid="102993125" hostid="261"></div>India had never landed on the moon before. The Soviet Union completed its last lunar landing in 1976. That was Luna-24.So Luna-25 is "almost like a first" for Russia, Braun said. Because it's been so long, it's likely that most of the people involved have never participated in a moon mission before.<div type="image" title="surface of moon grey rocky cratered" height="1552" width="2070" msid="102993127" hostid="261"></div>With no prior experience, they must build and program the lander system to push itself out of orbit, point itself in the right direction, and map and assess the ground below as it plummets toward the surface, while continuously re-orienting itself to find a safe spot.Once it's very close to the surface, a lander must slow down and, often, spin around and deploy its legs. Then, once it makes contact with the surface, the system has to be strong enough to withstand the shock."So many of these things are proven out via simulation," Braun said. "It's very hard to make a high-fidelity or an accurate simulation of something you've not experienced."During landing, time is compressed, so every little bit flip, calculation, and robotic movement must happen exactly on time, in the correct order. Any error, any flaw in the hardware or software, could cause a crash.<h2>The moon's dust, rocks, and uneven terrain can interfere</h2><div type="image" title="moon footprint" height="768" width="1024" msid="102993129" hostid="261"></div>The very end of a landing is the hardest part, because the spacecraft starts to interact with the moon's surface, Braun <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-india-israel-failed-moon-landings-failed-final-descent-2019-9">previously told Insider</a>.If a lander's leg hits a boulder, it could tip over and that would be the end of the mission. Lunar dust can even cloud up the instruments and tip the scales toward failure.<h2>The lunar south pole is uniquely hazardous</h2>The very thing that makes the moon's south pole so desirable — the permanently shadowed regions that harbor water ice — also makes it more difficult to land on.<div type="image" title="men in white clothing hold hands up in prayer sitting cross legged in front of cutouts of a white rocket" height="1500" width="2250" msid="102993131" hostid="261"></div>Descent vehicles and landers often use cameras to assess the ground below them in real-time in those final minutes, as they approach the lunar surface. Visibility helps identify boulders and craters they should avoid so they don't tip over.Near the south pole, "they're probably flying through some pretty long shadows, even if they don't land in a shadowed region," Braun said.That doesn't seem to have played a factor in the south-pole attempts so far, but the shadows could menace future moon missions.Also, before India landed there, no nation had ever been to the moon's south pole region. Compared to the equator region, where the Apollo missions landed, it's uncharted territory."Having been a part of both successes and failures at Mars, I learned way more from the failures than from the successes," Braun said. "You pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, you think hard about everything you did right and whatever it is that you and the team did wrong, and you make improvements, and you do better."Correction: August 28, 2023 — An earlier version of this article misstated Robert Braun's title. He is head of space exploration at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, not head of a Space Exploration Center there.Editor's note September 1, 2023: This article has been updated to clarify that India's spacecraft landed in the lunar south pole region, not on the point of the lunar south pole.This story has been updated. It was originally published on August 23, 2023.

Why Russia and India both crashed near the moon's south pole before India nailed the first soft landing there

India is set to celebrate its first <keyword id="22301946" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="National-Space-Day" source="keywords">National Space Day</keyword> on August 23, 2024. In 2023, on this very day, <keyword id="20376714" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chandrayaan-3" source="keywords">Chandrayaan 3</keyword> accomplished the safe and soft landing of <keyword id="21074312" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vikram-Lander" source="keywords">Vikram Lander</keyword> on the <keyword id="20381887" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="lunar-surface" source="keywords">lunar surface</keyword>. India became the fourth country to land on the moon and the first to land near the southern polar region of the moon. The <keyword id="19909265" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Union-Government" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Union Government" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Union Government">Union Government</keyword> has declared August 23rd as "National Space Day" to celebrate the remarkable success of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission, which accomplished a safe and soft landing of the Vikram Lander and deployed the <keyword id="22760272" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pragyaan-rover" source="keywords">Pragyaan rover</keyword> on the lunar surface near the South Pole. This achievement is being celebrated across the country with the goal of engaging and inspiring the younger generation in the field of <keyword id="21280701" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Space-Science" source="keywords">Space Science</keyword> and Technology. To commemorate this historical achievement, the Department of Fisheries (DoF), <keyword id="19923385" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Government-of-India" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Government of India" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Government of India">Government of India</keyword> (GoI), is organizing a series of seminars and demonstrations, to create awareness about the Application of Space Technologies in the Fisheries Sector. The events are being organized in collaboration with various coastal States and Union Territories, <keyword id="19915124" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ISRO" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="ISRO" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="ISRO">ISRO</keyword> and DoF field offices. Earlier, the notification issued by the Department of Space said India became the first country to land near the South pole of the moon with the success of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission. "With the success of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission on August 23, 2023, with the landing of the Vikram lander and deployment of the Pragyaan Rover on the lunar surface, India joins an elite group of Space faring nations becoming the fourth country to land on the moon and the first nation to land near to South pole of the moon," said the notification. "The outcome of this historic mission will benefit mankind in the years to come," it added. The notification said the day marks an important milestone in the country's advancements in space missions, will inspire younger generations towards enhanced interest in pursuing <keyword id="19960286" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="stem" source="keywords">STEM</keyword> and will provide a major impetus to the space sector. "The Government of India has declared August 23 of every year as 'National Space Day' to commemorate this historic moment," it said.

India set to celebrate first National Space Day on August 23

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Intuitive Machines' uncrewed Odysseus moon landing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intuitive-machines-ceo-safety-switch-almost-lost-odysseus-moon-landing-2024-2">almost failed due to a single safety switch</a>.</li><li>Other moon-landing attempts have crashed or burned due to leaky valves or software glitches.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-moon-landings-on-lunar-south-pole-crashed-2023-8">Landing on the moon is so difficult</a> that, until last year, only three nations had ever done it without crashing. Recently, India, Japan, and one private company — Intuitive Machines — have joined their ranks.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intuitive-machines-im-1-odysseus-moon-lunar-landing-mission-nasa-2024-2">Intuitive Machines' moon landing</a> on Thursday was particularly significant, returning the US to the lunar surface for the first time in nearly 52 years and softly landing the first commercial spacecraft on the moon.But the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-intuitive-machines-moon-landing-attempt-after-astrobotic-fail-2024-2">mission</a> narrowly avoided the same fate as several lunar-landing attempts before it: death by small engineering error.The Houston-based company's uncrewed Odysseus lander was almost lost to one of the tiniest possible mistakes. A safety switch that should have been switched off before <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vulcan-peregrine-us-mission-first-land-moon-astrobotic-human-remains-2024-1">launch</a> was left on instead, effectively disabling the navigation system that was supposed to guide the robot to a safe landing spot.<div type="image" title="fisheye view of lunar surface with moon lander legs in the foreground" height="800" width="600" msid="108055483" hostid="261" sizebytes="27018"></div>With less than two hours to go before landing, Intuitive Machines engineers frantically whipped up a new navigation system. They reprogrammed the spacecraft to instead use the laser technology from a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-made-oxygen-out-of-thin-air-on-mars-2023-9">NASA experiment</a> it was carrying to the moon. The experiment wasn't meant to land the spacecraft, but it worked in a pinch.At the last second, though, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-india-moon-landing-cost-cheap-compared-to-nasa-russia-2023-8">lander</a> tipped over and settled on its side. That seems to be unrelated to the errant safety switch.<div type="image" title="moon lander model small figurine laying sideways on a table propped on a small blue mini of itself with a torso in a suit in the background seated at the table with hands folded next to a microphone" height="712" width="1262" msid="108055484" hostid="261" sizebytes="22606"></div>"<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/william-shatner-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-spaceflight-funeral-2022-10">Spaceflight</a> is hard. A million things have to go right, and if one thing goes wrong, you can still have a failure," Trent Martin, vice president of space systems at Intuitive Machines, said in a NASA press briefing in January, weeks before Odysseus launched.Indeed, several robotic moon landing attempts have crashed or otherwise malfunctioned in the last few years. Overall, only about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/success-rate-of-lunar-missions-is-a-little-over-50-as-per-nasa-database/articleshow/101774227.cms">50% of lunar landing missions succeed</a>.In each recent case, failure comes down to tiny engineering details — of a million steps, just one going wrong. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mind-boggling-nasa-photo-shows-moon-distance-from-earth-2022-10">Photos</a> from those missions show just how important the little things are in spaceflight.<h2>Astrobotic's lander may have succumbed to one leaky valve</h2>Sometimes all it takes to kill a moon landing is one small piece of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-delayed-nasa-launch-red-nail-polish-blocking-rocket-engines-2020-10">subpar hardware</a>.Just a month before Intuitive Machines triumphed, Astrobotic — another US company <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-lands-4-astronauts-for-nasa-spaceflight-record-2021-4">working with NASA</a> to reach the moon — failed.Just hours after launch, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astrobotic-moon-lander-leaking-fuel-after-launch-threatening-mission-2024-1">Astrobotic's Peregrine lander began leaking fuel</a>. When it beamed its first photo back to Earth, it showed the lander's insulation crumpling.<div type="image" title="Photo of dented Multi-Layer Insulation on board the Peregrine mission." height="1080" width="1920" msid="108055526" hostid="261" sizebytes="56992"></div>Astrobotic said the most likely cause was a valve failing to reseal in the fuel-tank system. That small failure was enough to drain the lander's fuel, cause the crumpling in the photo, and ultimately <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-astrobotic-peregrine-anomaly-sift-error-software-testing-2024-1">doom the mission</a>.Landing on the moon had become impossible, Astrobotic decided, so <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-moon-lander-peregrine-burn-up-earth-atmosphere-satellite-astrobotic-2024-1">Peregrine burned up in Earth's atmosphere</a> instead.<h2>3 moon crashes show how time is compressed in the final '15 minutes of terror'</h2>Especially in the final stages of descent, there is almost no room for error in a moon landing.That's what India learned from its first attempt to land on the moon, in 2019. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-india-israel-failed-moon-landings-failed-final-descent-2019-9">The Vikram lander crashed into the moon</a> because it slowed down more quickly than its braking system had been programmed to accommodate, <a target="_blank" href="https://spacenews.com/new-details-emerge-about-failed-lunar-landings/">SpaceNews</a> later reported.NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) later discovered Vikram's remains scattered across the lunar surface.<div type="image" title="lunar surface area with blue and green dots indicating vikram lander crash debris spread long over several kilometers" height="1041" width="1041" msid="108055527" hostid="261" sizebytes="227012"></div>In those final stages, a spacecraft is completely on its own. There is no time for mission operators to respond to fresh data from the spacecraft, write new commands, and beam them back to the moon."Time gets greatly compressed," Robert Braun, the space exploration lead at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, previously told Business Insider. "There's very little margin to try something again if it didn't happen as planned."That's why Kailasavadivoo Sivan, who was India's space program director at the time, has called this final phase "15 minutes of terror."Last year <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-company-ispace-fears-moon-probe-crash-landed-2023-4">Japanese company ispace also lost its moon lander</a> in those final stages, just a few miles above the lunar surface, due to a software glitch. LRO spotted that lander in pieces, too:<div type="image" title="gif flashing between before and after images of the lunar surface show the appearance of four spots of debris from a lunar lander crash" height="985" width="985" msid="108055528" hostid="261" sizebytes="47310"></div>"Once you initiate a landing sequence, you're committed. It's kind of like jumping out of a plane," Braun said. "Your parachute has to work."The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tardigrades-on-moon-spacecraft-beresheet-likely-still-alive-2019-8">Beresheet lander, by Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL</a>, also went into freefall during the critical final stages of its landing in 2019. One computer command led to a cascade of technical glitches that made its main engine fail. LRO spotted its wreckage, too:<div type="image" title="israel beresheet private moon lander crash site nasa lunar reconnaissance orbiter lro labeled" height="1207" width="1200" msid="108055529" hostid="261" sizebytes="189456"></div><h2>Japan's upside-down moon landing survived a major failure</h2>Japan's <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jaxas-slim-spacecraft-japan-first-moon-landing-attempt-2023-12">Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM)</a> recently survived a big malfunction — with a twist.One of the lander's two main thrusters failed as it was descending, causing the spacecraft to tumble. It survived the chaotic fall, and managed to deploy the two tiny rovers it carried.But a photo from one of those rovers later revealed the lander had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-moon-probe-landed-upside-down-still-works-2024-1">landed upside-down</a>.<div type="image" title="image taken by a Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2) of a robotic moon rover called Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, on the moon." height="2252" width="3000" msid="108055530" hostid="261" sizebytes="322110"></div>That angled its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-lander-hibernating-so-batteries-dont-die-2021-4">solar panels</a> away from the sun, which has taken a toll on the spacecraft's energy generation and left it with too little battery power to operate for much of its mission.SLIM's case shows that sometimes extremely robust hardware and software engineering, plus a healthy dose of luck, can help a lander do its job despite an error or two.Similarly, Intuitive Machines' success on Thursday shows that small errors don't necessarily have to spell <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-voyager-spacecraft-where-still-contact-communication-end-soon-2024-1">the end of a mission</a>."Space is hard, and equipment doesn't always operate as expected," Braun told Business Insider after Odysseus landed. "In this case here, engineers on the ground came up with an ingenious way to keep the mission on track and actually accomplish the landing."

Space photos from 5 recent moon-landing missions show how tiny engineering errors can cause big problems, like crashing or landing sideways

India's ambitious third <keyword id="42440" type="General" weightage="90" keywordseo="moon" source="Orion">Moon</keyword> mission's spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 on Wednesday successfully underwent a fifth and final Moon-bound orbit maneouvre, bringing it even closer to the lunar surface. With this, the spacecraft has completed its lunar-bound maneouvres and it will now prepare for the propulsion module and the lander module separation, <keyword id="6358064" type="General" weightage="70" keywordseo="ISRO" source="Orion">ISRO</keyword> said. "Today's successful firing, needed for a short duration, has put Chandrayaan-3 into an orbit of 153 km x 163 km, as intended. With this, the lunar bound maneuvres are completed. It's time for preparations as the Propulsion Module and the Lander Module gear up for their separate journeys," the national space agency tweeted. Separation of the lander module from the propulsion module of the spacecraft is planned for August 17, it said. Post its launch on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 entered into the lunar orbit on August 5, following which three successive orbit reduction maneouvres were carried out on August 6, 9 and 14 to move closer to the Moon. As the mission progresses, a series of maneouvres is being conducted by ISRO to gradually reduce Chandrayaan-3's orbit and position it over the lunar poles. The spacecraft is scheduled to make a soft landing on the south polar region of the Moon on August 23.

Chandrayaan-3 undergoes last Moon-bound maneouvre, prepares for propulsion and lander module seperation

New Delhi [India], August 18 (ANI): <keyword id="8011274" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="chandrayaan-3" source="Orion">Chandrayaan-3</keyword> is just days away from its final destination, the moon. On August 23 the <keyword id="7864315" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="vikram-lander" source="Orion">Vikram Lander</keyword> of Chandrayaan 3 is expected to make a soft landing on the south pole of the moon. ISRO on Friday released images of the moon as captured by the position detection camera attached to the lander right after the successful separation of the lander from the propulsion module. Here are some of the pictures: The Chandrayaan-3 mission's lander is named after Vikram Sarabhai (1919-1971), who is widely regarded as the father of the Indian space programme. On Wednesday, the spacecraft carried out the final lunar-bound orbit reduction manoeuvre of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, a week ahead of its scheduled landing on the south pole of the moon on August 23. A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle was used for the launch of the spacecraft that was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then it has been through a series of orbital manoeuvres. It has been a month and three days since the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14. The spacecraft was launched from the <keyword id="6356967" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="satish-dhawan-space-centre" source="Orion">Satish Dhawan Space Centre</keyword> in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota. ISRO is bidding to make a successful soft landing on the moon, which will make India the fourth country in the world to achieve the feat after the United States, Russia, and China. The stated objectives of Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, are safe and soft landing, rover roving on the moon's surface, and in-situ scientific experiments. The approved cost of Chandrayaan-3 is Rs 250 crores (excluding launch vehicle cost). Chandrayaan-3's development phase commenced in January 2020 with the launch planned sometime in 2021. However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought an unforeseen delay to the mission's progress. Chandrayaan-3 is the ISRO's follow-up attempt after the Chandrayaan-2 mission faced challenges during its soft landing on the lunar surface in 2019 and was eventually deemed to have failed its core mission objectives. Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), S Somanath last week expressed confidence in the progress of the Chandrayaan 3, providing reassurance that all systems were operating as planned. Chairman S Somanath stated, "Everything is going fine now. There will be a series of manoeuvres until it lands (on the Moon) on 23rd August. The satellite is healthy." Moon serves as a repository of the Earth's past and a successful lunar mission by India will help enhance life on Earth while also enabling it to explore the rest of the solar system and beyond. Historically, spacecraft missions to the Moon have primarily targeted the equatorial region due to its favourable terrain and operating conditions. However, the lunar south pole presents a vastly different and more challenging terrain compared to the equatorial region. (ANI)

Up, close & personal images of the moon from Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander

New Delhi [India], July 14 (ANI): With only hours left for the lift-off, anticipation is building around the launch <keyword id="18004590" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="indias-third-lunar-exploration-mission" source="Orion">India's third lunar exploration mission</keyword>, <keyword id="8011274" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="chandrayaan-3" source="Orion">Chandrayaan-3</keyword>, by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), on Friday. The GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle, which will release the moon <keyword id="1609912" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="lander" source="Orion">lander</keyword> and rover into space, will lift off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota at 2.30 pm. The countdown for the launch began on Thursday at 14:35:17 IST, ahead of the lift-off on Friday. Chandrayaan-3 will be ISRO's follow-up attempt after the <keyword id="229677" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="chandrayaan-2-mission" source="Orion">Chandrayaan-2 mission</keyword> faced challenges during its <keyword id="943223" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="soft-landing" source="Orion">soft landing</keyword> on the lunar surface in 2019 and was eventually deemed to have failed its mission objectives. The 'Launch Rehearsal' simulating the entire launch preparation and process was concluded earlier by the ISRO. Chandrayaan-3 is equipped with a lander, <keyword id="18004591" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="a-rover-and-a-propulsion-module" source="Orion">a rover and a propulsion module</keyword>. It weighs around 3,900 kilograms. The ISRO's third lunar exploration mission is equipped with eight payloads. The experiments to be carried out by Chandrayan 3 include the Vikram lander (named after Space scientist Vikram Sarabhai) which will carry 4 instruments, Pragyan (Saanskrit for Wisdom) rover will carry two instruments and Propulsion Module or the Orbiter will carry one experiment. Vikram lander's experiments include Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure surface thermal properties, Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) to measure seismicity around the landing site, Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) to study the gas and plasma environment, and Passive laser retroreflector array provided by NASA for lunar ranging studies. While the Pragyan (Saanskrit for Wisdom) rover will carry two instruments to study the surface elemental composition - Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) that will help determine the elemental composition of the lunar soil and rocks around the landing site and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) which will conduct qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis in order to infer the chemical and mineralogical composition of the lunar surface. The Propulsion Module or the Orbiter will carry Spectropolarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) to study Earth's spectral and polarimetric measurements from lunar orbit. This helps scientists analyse the reflected light from exoplanets and determine whether they would qualify for habitability. The journey from Earth to the moon for the spacecraft is estimated to take about a month and the landing is expected on August 23. Upon landing, it will operate for one lunar day, which is approximately 14 Earth days. One day on the Moon is equal to 14 days on Earth. K Sivan, former director of ISRO, told that the success of mission Chandrayan-3 will give a morale boost to programmes like Gaganyan, India's first manned space mission. Chandrayaan-3's development phase commenced in January 2020 with the launch planned sometime in 2021, but the Covid-19 pandemic brought an unforeseen delay to the mission's progress. The major discovery of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, launched in 2008, was the detection of water (H2O) and hydroxyl (OH) on the lunar surface. Data mined by the rover then also revealed their enhanced abundance towards the polar region. The primary science objective of the mission was to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both the near and far sides of the Moon and to conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface with high spatial resolution, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre under ISRO had said. Moon serves as a repository of the Earth's past and a successful lunar mission by India will help enhance life on Earth while also enabling it explore the rest of the solar system and beyond. Director of Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO), S Somanath, said earlier that if everything goes well, the spacecraft will land on the moon on August 23. The date has been decided based on the sunrise on the moon, he said, adding that if it gets delayed, the landing may take place next month. (ANI)

Chandrayaan-3 mission: Only hours left for the lift-off

New Delhi [India], August 22 (ANI): In its latest update on Chandrayaan-3 soft landing, <keyword id="6358064" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="isro" source="Orion">ISRO</keyword> on Tuesday said the mission is on schedule and systems are undergoing regular checks. "Smooth sailing is continuing, The Mission Operations Complex (at ISRO) is buzzed with energy and excitement!" ISRO posted on X, formerly Twitter. After Russia's Luna-25 mission failed, all eyes will be on India as its Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the moon on August 23, 2023 (Wednesday), around 18:04 IST. The live telecast of the landing operations at MOX will begin at 1720 IST on Wednesday. Live actions of landing will be available on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV from 17:27 IST on Aug 23, 2023. Along with the mission's update, ISRO also released images of the moon captured by the Lander Position Detection Camera (LPDC) from an altitude of about 70 km. These images assist the lander module in determining its position (latitude and longitude) by matching them against an onboard moon reference map. On Monday, ISRO released a series of images of the lunar far side area captured by the Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera (LHDAC). This camera assists in locating a safe landing area -- without boulders or deep trenches -- during the descent. Also, in a significant development, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter which was still orbiting around the moon established a two-way connection with the lander module of Chandrayaan-3 on Monday. Notably, the 'Vikram' lander module of the spacecraft successfully separated from the propulsion module on Thursday, and subsequently underwent crucial deboosting manoeuvres and descended to a slightly lower orbit. The Chandrayaan-3 mission's lander is named after Vikram Sarabhai (1919-1971), who is widely regarded as the father of the Indian space programme. A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle was used for the launch of the spacecraft that was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then it has been through a series of orbital manoeuvres been lowered closer to the moon's surface. It has been a month and eight days since the <keyword id="116095" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="indian-space-research-organisation" source="Orion">Indian Space Research Organisation</keyword> launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14. The spacecraft was launched from the <keyword id="6356967" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="satish-dhawan-space-centre" source="Orion">Satish Dhawan Space Centre</keyword> in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota. The stated objectives of Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, are safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, rover moving on the moon's surface, and in-situ scientific experiments. India will be the fourth country in the world to achieve this feat after the United States, Russia, and China, but India will be the only country in the world to land on the lunar south pole. Chandrayaan-3's development phase commenced in January 2020, with the launch planned sometime in 2021. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought an unforeseen delay to the mission's progress. Notably, the Chandrayaan-1 mission discovered the presence of water on the surface of the Moon, which was a new revelation for the world and even the premier Space agencies like the USA's NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) were fascinated by this discovery and used the inputs for their further experiments. (ANI)

Smooth Sailing says ISRO as Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander gets closer to the Moon

Bengaluru, Chandrayaan-3 mission's Lander Module which touched down on the lunar surface, has rolled out the rover, <keyword id="439182" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="pragyan" source="Orion">Pragyan</keyword>, with ISRO saying "<keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> took a walk on the moon". On its official X handle, ISRO said the "rover ramped down." "Chandrayaan-3 ROVER: Made in India--Made for the Moon! The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the lander and India took a walk on the moon!," it said. Official sources had earlier confirmed the development. President <keyword id="2848422" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="droupadi-murmu" source="Orion">Droupadi Murmu</keyword> congratulated the ISRO team for the successful deployment of Pragyan. "Its rolling out a few hours after the landing of <keyword id="1091" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vikram" source="Orion">Vikram</keyword> marked the success of yet another stage of Chandrayaan 3. I look forward with excitement, alongside my fellow citizens and scientists, to the information and analyses that Pragyan will acquire and enrich our understanding of the moon", she said. In precision landing, Chandrayaan 3's LM Vikram touched down the lunar surface at 6.04 pm on Wednesday, sending the nation into wild celebrations. The ISRO had earlier said the 26 kg six-wheeled rover was scheduled to descend from the lander's belly, onto the Moon's surface, using one of its side panels as a ramp. The lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan) -- with a total mass of 1,752 kg -- are designed to operate for one lunar daylight period (about 14 Earth days) to study the surroundings there. However, ISRO officials do not rule out the possibility of them coming to life for another lunar day. The rover will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility. Both the lander and the rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface. The rover would study the surface of the moon through its payloads APXS - Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer - to derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further enhance understanding of the lunar surface. Pragyan also has another payload--Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) to determine the elemental composition of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site. ISRO Chairman S Somnath had earlier said, "After powered descent (of lander) on to the landing site, there will be deployment of ramp and rover coming out. After this all the experiments will take place one after the other -- all of which have to be completed in just one day on the moon, which is 14 days."

India walks on the moon as Pragyan rover rolls on to the lunar surface

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Japan successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon for the first time in the nation's history.</li><li>But the spacecraft isn't generating solar energy to power is suite of scientific instruments.</li></ul>On Friday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced that its SLIM spacecraft had successfully <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">landed on the moon</a>.It's a momentous day for the nation as the landing marks the first time Japan has ever softly touched down on the lunar surface.The feat makes Japan the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jaxas-slim-spacecraft-japan-first-moon-landing-attempt-2023-12">third nation to land on the moon</a> in the 21st century, behind China and India, and the fifth nation to ever do so.But the spacecraft isn't generating solar power. It's running on batteries, which are rapidly depleting and only have a few hours left of life, JAXA said in a <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/JAXA_en/status/1748345554655228118">press conference</a> following the touchdown.So JAXA is racing against the clock, trying to extract as much data from the spacecraft as possible before the batteries run out.The spacecraft snapped pictures of the lunar surface as it descended, which JAXA hopes to beam back to Earth. The agency also hopes to obtain data on what happened during the descent to assess the spacecraft's status.<h2>The mission isn't over yet</h2><div type="image" title="Photo of Shioli crater taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter." height="3000" width="3000" msid="106998451" hostid="261" sizebytes="628492"></div>SLIM, short for "Smart Lander for Investigating Moon," was scheduled to touch down near a small impact crater, called Shioli crater, on the near side of the moon — the side that faces Earth.It has a suite of scientific instruments and two tiny rovers. But many of these instruments may go unused if the spacecraft can't generate solar energy to power them.It's unclear why the solar cells on SLIM aren't working. One reason could be that they are angled in the wrong direction, Hitoshi Kuninaka, the head of JAXA's space lab, said during the press conference.If that's the case, then there's still a possibility that, as the moon moves through space, the angle of the sun will change and could strike the panels, powering them up, Kuninaka added.JAXA said the solar cell issue doesn't mean the end of the mission but that it needs to reassess the state of the spacecraft to determine its next steps.Even though the mission didn't go exactly according to plan, Kuninaka said that JAXA considers it a success since the spacecraft successfully touched down on the moon.

Japan has landed a spacecraft on the moon for the first time, but the mission didn't go exactly according to plan

<ul class="summary-list"><li>China's lunar probe returned to Earth with the first-ever samples from the moon's far side. </li><li>The samples could answer crucial questions about how planets form.</li></ul>China just took a huge leap forward in its plans to dominate space.On Tuesday, its Chang'e-6 lunar probe successfully returned to Earth carrying the first-ever samples from the moon's far side. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrFGMaB9kjo">A video showed </a>an official triumphantly planting a Chinese flag near the capsule in Mongolia after it glided back to our planet by parachute.The samples, which include 2.5 million-year-old volcanic rock, could answer crucial questions about how planets form, as well as the moon's history.But they are significant for another reason too.They signify China's growing prowess in orbit, as well as its potential to someday leapfrog the US in the race to dominate space.<h2 id="e5565559-09e3-4a5e-aba9-a6a2fdad33fa">The moon's far side</h2>The moon's far side is considered particularly challenging to explore because of its craters and the difficulty of maintaining communications with vehicles landing there.China is the only country to have landed in this tricky terrain and returned with samples. The latest mission, which launched on May 3, is China's second successful landing on the moon's far side, with the first launched in 2019.Overall, it has soft-landed on the moon four times.The US, meanwhile, has had less luck. In <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astobotic-faulty-valve-doomed-peregrine-moon-lander-lunar-mission-leak-2024-1">January</a>, Astrobiotic <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vulcan-peregrine-us-mission-first-land-moon-astrobotic-human-remains-2024-1">launched a lander</a> into space, with the aim of it being the first American spacecraft to soft land on the moon since the Apollo era.But its hopes were quickly dashed after a <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astrobotic-moon-lander-leaking-fuel-after-launch-threatening-mission-2024-1">fuel leak</a> caused a failure in the spacecraft's propellant system.In February, Intuitive Machines, in collaboration with NASA, achieved a first: landing a US commercial spacecraft <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-moon-landings-on-lunar-south-pole-crashed-2023-8">on the moon without crashing</a>.But that had complications. As previously reported by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intuitive-machines-im-1-odysseus-moon-lunar-landing-mission-nasa-2024-2">Business Insider,</a> when the spacecraft touched down on the moon, it stopped communicating with mission control.The recent moon-landing scoreboard is "4 to 0.5" in favor of China, Simone Dell'Agnello, a researcher who collaborated with Chang'e 6, told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/historic-moon-mission-gets-china-one-small-step-ahead-in-space-race-41894d41">The Wall Street Journal. </a>"The first difference is that China has missions landing on the fucking moon."<h2 id="31daf330-3f01-460b-9b3b-5b7588f74167">The space race heats up</h2>China is now rivaling the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-beat-us-race-moon-lunar-lander-peregrine-fuel-leak-2024-1">US and Russia as a leading space power. </a>It has its own manned space station, Tiangong, and in 2022 became the second country after the US to land a robotic vehicle on the surface of Mars.Analysts believe that China's leader, Xi Jinping, sees huge economic and military opportunities in space. China is planning to send a crewed flight to the moon by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-beat-us-race-moon-lunar-lander-peregrine-fuel-leak-2024-1">2030 and build a base at the lunar south pole.</a>The US is gearing up for its own space exploration missions and has rival plans to land a crewed flight on the moon and build a base.The head of NASA, Bill Nelson, has said that the US and China are involved in a new "space race" and that China's research missions are being used for covert military activity.He said that China seems to be accelerating its plans to send a crewed flight to the moon."It is incumbent on us to get there first," <a target="_blank" href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5115651/nasa-administrator-race-chine-south-pole-moon">told Congress in April.</a>At stake are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4783/1">water supplies scientists believe may be on the moon's far side</a>, which China could claim. These supplies would be vital for establishing a moon base or for further space exploration.Pentagon officials have warned that China is seeking to potentially disable US satellites if a war breaks out between them.China has insisted its space program is for the benefit of humanity.But it's also a race for control of economic resources and military power in the intensifying rivalry between the US and China.

You Searched For "vikram soft land on moon" and got 13 results

"A glorious moment for all Indians when Chandrayaan landed on moon" says President Murmu on National Space Day

ANI

Chandrayaan 3: Countdown starts for India's third moon mission

ANI

India wants to fly its own astronauts to the moon, after becoming the first nation to land near the lunar south pole

Marianne Guenot

Why Russia and India both crashed near the moon's south pole before India nailed the first soft landing there

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

India set to celebrate first National Space Day on August 23

ANI

Space photos from 5 recent moon-landing missions show how tiny engineering errors can cause big problems, like crashing or landing sideways

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Chandrayaan-3 undergoes last Moon-bound maneouvre, prepares for propulsion and lander module seperation

PTI

Up, close & personal images of the moon from Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander

ANI

Chandrayaan-3 mission: Only hours left for the lift-off

ANI

Smooth Sailing says ISRO as Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander gets closer to the Moon

ANI

India walks on the moon as Pragyan rover rolls on to the lunar surface

PTI

Japan has landed a spacecraft on the moon for the first time, but the mission didn't go exactly according to plan

Jessica Orwig

China's historic moon mission is just the start of its plans to dominate space

Tom Porter

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