India launches the country’s first moon mission since 2008
The unmanned Chandrayaan 2 rocket blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the east coast on Monday 22nd Jul 2019. The £113m ($140m) mission if successful, would place India alongside the US, Russia and China.
The mission launched 50 years after the US astronauts first walked on the moon showed India’s determination to annexe an place in the elite club of space exploration nations. The scientific mission comes just months after the military shot down a satellite with a missile in a high-profile test.
Brahma Chellaney, Professor of Strategic affairs at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi said Chandrayaan 2 marked the new phase of a contest to conquer space that for a long time had been confined to the US and Russia. “ We are seeing India-China space race, and it is apparent both in civilian and military areas”.
India’s previous lunar mission in 2008m Chandrayaan1 , sent a probe to the moon’s surface but did not make the controlled landing that would have allowed it conduct ground-based tests.
In early September Chandrayaan 2 will release a roving vehicle on to the moon’s previously unexplored south pole. The vehicle will search for water and signs of how the solar system developed.
Chaitanya Giri, of the Gateway House think-thank in Mumbai said the programme brought economic benefits by creating technology that could be sold commercially and that it fostered innovation.
In the meanwhile US President Donald Trump has called for American astronauts to set foot on the lunar surface again before 2024.