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After the failed moon landing attempt in 2019, India is trying a second time: Friday at 2:35 p.m. local time (11:05 a.m. German time), the space agency ISRO sent a rocket with a lunar probe on board towards the moon.

“Start is normal,” it said, as the white rocket soared into the cloudy sky from the Satish Dhawan Space Station in Andhra Pradesh state. And: “Any Indian who watches the start live is happy to see history being made.”

With the unmanned mission “Chandrayaan-3”, India aims to explore the rarely explored south side of the moon for about two weeks. But first the landing, which is scheduled for August 23 or 24, must go well. So far, only the US, the Soviet Union and China have managed to achieve a soft landing. “Chandrayaan” means “lunar vehicle” in Sanskrit.

India’s first attempt failed in 2019. During the Chandrayaan-2 mission, the landing module crashed on the surface of the Earth satellite. The space agency later told parliament in New Delhi that there were problems with braking during the approach to the moon. India had previously had another mission to the moon: the “Chandrayaan-1” probe was launched in 2008 and orbited the moon without landing on it. In the current mission, lunar orbit should be reached in about 15 to 20 days, it said. “Chandrayaan-3” will also receive support from ground stations around the world, including from the European Space Agency Esa, as announced.

Prior to the second attempt, space agency officials visited the Hindu temple in the city of Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh state, and asked for divine help. Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, the chief of the authority, told reporters there on Thursday in view of the spacecraft: “We hope all goes well and the probe lands on the moon on August 23.” In India, religion is important to many people. Most are Hindus.

India’s space program began in the 1960s. In the first decades, the focus was mainly on launching certain satellites into space at low cost. The country thus created a reputation for putting satellites into space relatively cheaply – also for other countries.

India now has more ambitious goals. Closer space cooperation was recently announced during a visit by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, to US President Joe Biden.

In addition to the current lunar mission, other projects are planned, which are expected to start from the end of 2024. So there should be missions to Venus (“Shukrayaan-1”) and to Mars (“Mangalyaan-2”). In addition, astronauts will be sent into space (“Gaganyaan”). The government also wants to increasingly appeal to the private sector, private companies are allowed to use the infrastructure of the space agency. Recently, it launched into space for the first time a rocket developed by a local private company.

Some experts criticize that the emerging country of 1.4 billion people spends a lot of money on large space projects while many people still live in poverty. (sda/dpa)