India wants to send people to the moon after becoming the first nation to land on the lunar south pole

A still from a livestream shows a 3D reconstitution of India's historic moon landing on August 23. India has become the first nation to land a robotic mission to the crucial south pole of the Moon.

ISRO

• India plans to build on its historic lunar landing Wednesday by sending people to the moon.
• India landed its first lunar spacecraft, and the first robotic mission on the moon's south pole, on Wednesday.
• India will "look into a human flight mission as well in the future," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed India's intention to send people to the moon in the near future as the nation celebrated the successful landing of the world's first-ever robotic mission to the lunar south pole.

India's Chandrayaan-3 probe defeated all odds on Wednesday after it managed to successfully land on the south pole of the moon, beating competing nations to the strategically important site.  

With the landing, India has become the fourth nation — after Russia, the US, and China — to land on the moon. 

The nation will build on this mission success by launching its first crewed mission to the moon, Modi said in Hindi during in a live stream of the landing, Sky News reported. 

"India is now on the Moon," said Modi, per the BBC. 

The nation "will look into a human flight mission as well for the future," he said, per Sky News. 

India has previously said it will attempt a crewed mission to low Earth orbit by late 2024, the Times of India reported. 

"India is showing and proving that the sky is not the limit", said Modi per Sky News. 

The Chandrayaan-3 mission, which successfully landed the Vikram lander on the south pole of the moon, cemented India's position as a frontrunner in the race to the moon.

The south pole is strategically important because scientists believe water ice is present in in the area. The hope is this water could someday support humans to live on the moon. 

Both Japanese private company ispace and Russia's space agency Roscosmos have recently tried to land robotic missions on the south pole of the moon, but neither managed to stick the landing. 

Per the Indian Space Research Organisation, India plans to first launch two uncrewed missions, Gaganyaan 1 and 2, the first of which is planned by the end of this year. The missions should test the capacity of the nation's rocket, LVM3. 

This should be followed by the nation's first crewed mission, which will aim to send three astronauts to orbit the moon for a three-day mission around low Earth orbit. 

 

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