Countdown Begins for India's Moon Mission Landing

India will attempt to land on the Moon for the second time on Wednesday, a mission deemed essential for lunar exploration and establishing its position in space research, just days after a similar Russian mission failed. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation, aims to land near the Moon's south pole around 12:34 PM UTC. Carla Philotico, partner and managing director at the consulting firm Space Tech Partners, noted that "landing at the Moon's south pole will effectively allow India to explore whether there is water ice on the Moon. This is critical for cumulative data and sciences related to lunar geology." The word "Chandrayaan" translates to "Mooncraft" in both Hindi and Sanskrit. This mission marks India's second attempt to land on the Moon, following the success of the Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019, which managed to place a spacecraft in orbit, but the main lander crashed.