[Shortly before the launch, a huge crowd of space enthusiasts gathered at the gates. The weather was hot and muggy, around 90 degrees, with thick cloud cover and occasional drizzles. Cameras dangled from their necks and some, like Kaushal Vijay, 8, wore pins saying “I Love India.”]
By Jeffrey Gettleman and Hari Kumar
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Chandrayaan-2,
India’s first moon lander, on the launchpad in Sriharikota, India,
last
week. Credit Indian Space Research Organization
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SATISH
DHAWAN SPACE CENTER, India —
India is on its way to the moon.
One week after a first attempt was canceled
at the last minute, the Chandrayaan-2 mission blasted off at 2:43 p.m. on
Monday from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s southeast coast, carrying
an uncrewed lunar lander and this country’s space dreams.
The 142-feet-tall rocket rose on a funnel of
fire, ripping through the air perfectly straight and surprisingly fast, before
vanishing into a thick bank of clouds, heading for the south pole of the moon.
“The mission has been successfully
accomplished!” blared a message from loudspeakers at mission control.
Last week, Indian rocket scientists abruptly
called off the launch less than an hour before liftoff. They had found a
“technical snag,” they said. Scientists later disclosed that one of the helium
tanks in the upper stage of the rocket had been slightly losing pressure.
But on Monday, all systems were go for the
first-ever mission to the moon’s south pole. India plans to land a
remote-controlled lander softly on the moon’s surface near the pole, which it
will then explore with a small, six-wheeled rover.
“The low-pressure issue got corrected,” said
Vivek Singh, a spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organization, India’s
version of NASA. “The mood is perfect.”
“You know in space missions, you can’t go
with 99 percent confidence,” he added. “You should have 100 percent
confidence.”
If successful, India will become the fourth
nation — after the United States, Russia and China — to land on the moon, more
than 200,000 miles away. It would be a huge leap forward for the country’s
ambitious space program, and scientists and defense experts everywhere are
watching to see whether the Indians can pull it off.
Within India, the mission has stoked enormous
pride, especially among schoolchildren who dream of being astronauts.
Shortly before the launch, a huge crowd of
space enthusiasts gathered at the gates. The weather was hot and muggy, around
90 degrees, with thick cloud cover and occasional drizzles. Cameras dangled
from their necks and some, like Kaushal Vijay, 8, wore pins saying “I Love
India.”
“It’s going to be like a missile going to the
moon!” he said. “A lot of fire and noise.”
His mother, Kswetha Vijay, said she had not
hesitated to pull her children out of school for the day.
“I feel proud for my kids to see this,” she
said.
Huge video screens in the space center’s
media room alternated between live images of the rocket standing on the
launchpad to shots of scientists and engineers sitting in rows in front of
banks of computers at mission control.
The timing for this moon mission could not be
more opportune. This weekend was the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first
steps on our little neighbor. All the anniversary coverage has uncapped a wave
of moon fever around the world.
Indian space officials said the Apollo
connection was just a coincidence.
India had planned to do this mission several
years ago as something of a joint venture in space with Russia. But after the
Russians backed out because of problems in their own space program, India
needed to make all the systems itself, which caused a long delay.
The mission includes four components: a giant
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle — Mark III rocket (though it is much
shorter and lighter than the Saturn V rocket that lifted the Apollo missions);
an orbiter; a lander; and the small rover.
The mission costs less than $150 million, but
will take much longer than the relatively straight shot made by the Apollo
missions, which cost billions (the presence of humans along for the ride added
to the price tag).
The Indian orbiter will conserve fuel by
making ever-widening orbits around the Earth before being captured by the
moon’s gravity and pulled into lunar orbit. The whole journey will take more
than five weeks.
The lander will then drop down from the
orbiter. After it touches down on the moon, Chandrayaan’s little solar-powered
rover will chug out. This is scheduled for early September.
The mission has been timed for the beginning
of a moon day, so the rover can get maximum sunlight.
Making a soft landing will be the hardest
part — an Israeli lander trying to do the same thing crashed on the moon in
April.
Indian scientists had built a small cushion
into their timing of orbiting the Earth and say the one-week delay will not
affect the intended landing date.
But, Mr. Singh admitted, “Some of our
flexibility will be reduced.”
