India is set to become the first nation to land a spacecraft on the moon's south pole Wednesday, marking a historic moment for the world's most populous nation as it closes in on milestones set by global space powers.
Chandrayaan-3, which means "Mooncraft" in Sanskrit, is scheduled to touch down shortly after 6:00pm India time (1230 GMT) near the little-explored lunar south pole, AFP reported.
The most-anticipated news is already on every local newspaper's front page with The Times of India's front-page headline saying, "India reaches for the Moon", on Wednesday while The Hindustan Times' headline said, "It's D-Day for Moon Mission".
The Indian space mission, which failed in 2019, is set to touch down on the moon days after Russia's first lunar mission in almost 50 years crashed on the lunar surface. However, the latest photos transmitted by the lander suggest the final leg of the voyage will succeed, according toformer Indian space chief K Sivan.
"It is giving some encouragement that we will be able to achieve the landing mission without any problem," he told AFP on Monday.
Sivan added that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had made corrections after the failure four years ago when scientists lost contact with the previous lunar module moments before its slated landing.
"Chandrayaan-3 is going to go with more ruggedness," he said. "We have confidence, and we expect that everything will go smoothly."
The Indian mission, launched six weeks ago, took longer to reach the moon than the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s due to less powerful rockets used by India. The probe must orbit Earth multiple times to gain speed before embarking on its lunar trajectory.
The spacecraft's lander, Vikram, which means "valour" in Sanskrit, detached from its propulsion module last week and has been sending back images of the moon's surface since entering lunar orbit on August 5.
A day ahead of the landing, the ISRO said on social media the landing was proceeding on schedule and that its mission control complex was "buzzed with energy and excitement".
"Smooth sailing is continuing," the agency posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
India's low-budget aerospace programme has grown significantly since its 2008 moon probe mission. The latest mission, costing $74.6 million, demonstrates India's frugal space engineering.
Experts believe India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing space technology and employing skilled engineers who earn less than their foreign counterparts.
In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to put a satellite into orbit around Mars and is slated to launch a three-day manned mission into Earth's orbit by next year.
Sivan, the former ISRO chief, said India's efforts to explore the relatively unmapped lunar south pole would make a "very, very important" contribution to scientific knowledge.
Only Russia, the US and China have previously achieved a controlled landing on the lunar surface. Russia launched its own lunar probe earlier in August — its first in nearly half a century.
If successful, it would have beaten Chandrayaan-3 by a matter of days to become the first mission of any nation to make a controlled landing around the lunar south pole. However, the Luna-25 probe crash-landed on Saturday after an unspecified incident as it was preparing for descent.
Punishing sanctions since the outset of the Ukraine war has affected Russia's space industry, which has also been beleaguered by corruption and a lack of innovation and partnerships.