India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed on the moon, being the fourth nation to achieve this milestone, on Aug. 23. Despite failed attempts, the spacecraft was the first to land near the south pole of the moon. 

The do-over mission of 2019 was launched off India’s East Coast, Sriharikota. Chandrayaan-2, India’s last attempt to the moon landing mission, reached lunar orbit and lost connection only two miles above the surface, prompting a devastating response throughout India.

Chandrayaan-3 isn’t the only mission that has provided amazing results by the LUPEX (Lunar Polar Exploration Mission). Chandrayaan-1 was launched by the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) in October of 2008 and played a significant role in the discovery of water molecules on the moon’s surface.

Chandrayaan-3 is a cost-effective lunar exploration amounting to around $75 million, standing out from other space missions, including Chandrayaan-2, which had a budget of $96.5 million.  

India’s historic landing made them the first country to land on the moon since China in 2020. Although the U.S. remains the only country to have successfully landed a man on the moon, India’s LUPEX mission has made a new significant discovery, arriving on what could possibly be future moon colonies. 

China’s last expedition to the moon returned back to Earth with two kilograms of lunar soil, which created motivation for rival countries to get ahold of what the moon may have to offer. 

“China has gone to the dark side, the side we don’t see. They are trying to get the mineral before [Americans] do,” Daniel Blasky, Marine science teacher, said.  

The 20th century space race still stands with the exception of new competing countries. New  developing technological advances around the world create competition for new information being sought out between the nations of Russia, the United States, China and India, making the desire for new information at an all time high. 

“There’s still the race to space that we had back in the Cold War. It is still going on now with China trying to get claims [to the moon],” Blasky said.  “We have southern priorities here. If we focused on that we could get back up sooner than later—that’s why they are getting the moon mission going.”

Though this mission has benefited India tremendously, it is viewed as a setback to competing countries. 

“This puts [India] on the map and this affects us and technology,” Blasky said. “They share technology with us and if we’re going up there, there’s minerals to be discovered and who knows what’s out there and what can be used here. That’s why China wants to get up there and get as much as they can before we do.”

Due to the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, the Gaganyaan programme, India’s space program, is a key project for ISRO, which plans to develop a human-habitable space capsule aiming to send three astronauts to the moon by 2024.