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Of the 111 lunar missions in the past seven decades, 62 succeeded, 41 failed, and eight achieved partial success, according to NASA’s lunar mission database.
India on Friday launched its third mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-3, with the aim of soft landing on the surface of Earth’s only natural satellite. A successful landing would make India the fourth country to achieve this rare feat, after the United States, China and the former Soviet Union.
According to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the technically challenging soft landing on the moon, which Chandrayaan-2 failed to achieve, was planned for 5.47pm on August 23.
Former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair said the success rate of lunar missions is nearly 50 percent due to the uncertainty of when the rockets leave Earth’s gravitational field.
“The influence of other planets, from the sun, is very little. There are a lot of cases of radiation in space and that leaves some equipment or components vulnerable to failure. In both India missions (Chandrayaan 1 and 2), we have specifically reached the orbit of the moon,” Nair told the agency. PTI.
From 1958 to 2023, India, the United States, the Soviet Union (now Russia), Japan, the European Union, China and Israel launched various lunar missions – orbiters, landers and rovers (orbiting the moon, landing on the moon and flying near the moon).
The first mission to the Moon – Pioneer 0 – was launched by the United States on August 17, 1958, although it was unsuccessful. Six more missions were launched by the Soviet Union and the United States in the same year, but they all failed.
Luna 1, launched by the Soviet Union on January 2, 1959, was partially successful. It was also the first “fly on the moon” mission.
The Ranger 7 mission launched by the United States in July 1964 was the first to take close-up pictures of the Moon.
The first soft landing on the moon and the first pictures of the lunar surface came from Luna 9, launched by the Soviet Union in January 1966. Five months later, in May 1966, the United States successfully launched a similar mission called Surveyor-1.
The Apollo 11 mission in July 1969 was the historic expedition in which humans first stepped onto the surface of the Moon. The three-man mission was headed by Neil Armstrong.
From 1958 to 1979, only the United States and the USSR launched lunar missions. In these 21 years, the two countries have launched 90 such space missions.
There was a lull in the decade that followed with no flights to the moon from 1980 to 1989.
Japan, the European Union, China, India and Israel were among the laggards.
Japan launched the Hiten orbiter in January 1990. This was also the first Japanese mission to the Moon. Then, in September 2007, Japan launched Selene, another orbital mission.
There were six lunar missions from 2000-2009 – Europe (Smart-1), Japan (Selene), China (Chang’e 1), India (Chandrayaan-1), and the United States (LCCROSS and LCCROSS).
Since 1990, the United States, Japan, India, the European Union, China and Israel have collectively launched 21 lunar missions.
(This story was not edited by the News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
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