India launched on Monday its moon mission Chandrayaan-2, intended to pose September 6 a device on the Earth's natural satellite, which would make it the fourth country to accomplish this technological feat.
A rocket GSLV-MkIII, the most powerful launcher of the Indian space agency ISRO, took off at 14:43 (11:13 am in France) from the firing point of Sriharikota, in south-east of India, found journalists of the AFP present on the spot. The flight, uninhabited, was proceeding according to the forecasts in the immediate future.
The expedition wants to place a probe in lunar orbit
The expedition aims to land a lander and a mobile robot near the South Pole of the Moon, located some 384,000 kilometers from the Earth, and to place a probe in lunar orbit.
If the mission is successful, India would become the fourth nation to successfully place a device on the Selenite soil, after the Soviet Union, the United States and China. An Israeli probe missed its moon landing in April and crashed.
A total cost of 124 million euros
Chandrayaan-2 ("Lunar Trolley" in Hindi) was originally scheduled to be launched on July 15, but officials stopped the countdown 56 minutes and 24 seconds before takeoff, because of a "technical problem" that ISRO did not detail officially. According to the local press, it was a leak in a helium cylinder of the cryogenic engine of the upper stage of the Indian rocket GSLV-MkIII.
New Delhi spent 140 million dollars (124 million euros) on Chandrayaan-2 - much less than other major space agencies for missions of this type - for a total weight of 3.8 tons.