Rome, August 17th. India’s latest space mission has completed a crucial step in its second lunar landing attempt, with the lunar module separating from the thrust section.
The images come from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) which confirmed that the Chandrayaan-3 lander, which in Sanskrit means “lunar ship,” “successfully separated” from its propulsion module six days before the scheduled August 23 landing.
ISRO said the propulsion module is now “continuing its journey in its current orbit for months/years,” as part of efforts to study exoplanets, or planets outside the solar system. The instruments on board the ship “will perform a spectral study of Earth’s atmosphere and measure changes in the polarization of clouds on Earth to study exoplanets that could be described as ‘habitable.'”
The world’s most populous country has a relatively low-budget air program, but it is quickly catching up with other space powers. If the remainder of the mission goes according to plan, the probe will land safely near the moon’s unexplored south pole between August 23 and August 24. India’s last attempt ended in failure four years ago when ground control lost contact moments before landing.
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