During Monday afternoon, local time, thousands of people gathered to watch the launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the island of Sriharikota in southeast India. The Indian space agency Isro writes on Twitter that the launch has succeeded and that the craft has entered the orbit of the earth.

The Chandrayaan-2 was actually postponed to the moon on July 15, but due to a fuel leak, the postponement was postponed. According to Indian researchers, the problem should now be solved.

Fourth nation in space

Work on the unmanned Chandrayaan-2 has been ongoing for almost ten years. However, the cost of the spacecraft is unusually low compared to similar projects in the past. The price tag for the India-produced craft, lunar lander and probe landed at around SEK 1.5 billion.

India may now be the fourth country in the world to have sent a rocket to the moon. If successful, the plan is for the craft to circulate around the moon for one year. The country also plans to send up a manned spacecraft within a few years.

Russia, the United States and China are the nations that have previously succeeded in sending rockets to the moon.

The launch takes place just over 50 years after Apollo 11's lunar landing in 1969.