India Plans Moon Landing This Year
- India’s second lunar mission scheduled to be launched in July
- Space race intensifies with billionaires, nations joining in
People photograph the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C35) in Andhra Pradesh.
Photographer: Arun Sankar/AFP via Getty Images
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India is planning to land on the south pole of the moon in September, three years ahead of a deadline to send a manned crew to space as Prime Minister Narendra Modi intensifies a sprawling extra-terrestrial race.
The mission to the moon -- India’s second -- will have an orbiter, a rover and a lander, and it is likely to be launched between July 9 and July 16, the Indian Space Research Organisation said in a statement late on Wednesday. All the modules are getting ready for the launch with an expected moon landing on Sept. 6, according to the statement.