The article discusses India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which successfully entered the Moon’s orbit on August 5, 2023, after a month-long journey. The mission aims to land a lander and rover on the lunar surface, making India the fourth country to achieve this feat after the US, Russia, and China. The spacecraft performed an orbit reduction maneuver to descend closer to the Moon’s surface. If successful, the lander will attempt a soft landing on August 23 or 24, and the rover will study the lunar surface for two weeks. The mission’s success would be a significant achievement for India’s space program and boost its ambitions for future interplanetary missions. However, the article notes that only about 40% of lunar missions have succeeded in landing on the Moon. The Chandrayaan-3 mission follows the partial failure of Chandrayaan-2 in 2019, which failed to land its lander safely.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-68918330