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A bright light seen streaking across Australian skies was thought to be a comet or even a UFO but it turns out it was a rocket launched from India.
Aussies from rural Queensland to Melbourne posted on social media with different theories of what they saw last night but most did not realise it was a space mission from another continent.
The country is hoping to become just the fourth nation to achieve a soft landing on the moon.
Residents in Wynnum, Queensland and Mudgee, NSW posted footage of the rocket on social media after seeing it last night. (Supplied)
The Indian spacecraft blazed its way toward the far side of the moon on Friday in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover on the lunar surface, the country's space agency said.
Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit, took off from a launchpad in Sriharikota in southern India with an orbiter, a lander and a rover, in a demonstration of India's emerging space technology.
The spacecraft embarked on a journey that is expected to last slightly over a month before landing on the moon's surface later in August.
Applause and cheers swept through mission control at Satish Dhawan Space Center, where the Indian Space Research Organisation's engineers and scientists celebrated as they monitored the launch of the spacecraft.
Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit, took off from a launchpad in Sriharikota in southern India with an orbiter, a lander and a rover. (Associated Press)
Thousands of Indians cheered outside the mission control centre and waved the national flag as they watched the spacecraft rise into the sky.
"Congratulations India. Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey towards the moon," ISRO Director Sreedhara Panicker Somanath said shortly after the launch.
A successful landing would make India the fourth country — after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China — to achieve the feat.
The six-wheeled lander and rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, junior minister for Science and Technology.
India's previous attempt to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon's little-explored south pole ended in failure in 2019.
It entered the lunar orbit but lost touch with its lander that crashed while making its final descent to deploy a rover to search for signs of water.
According to a failure analysis report submitted to the ISRO, the crash was caused by a software glitch.
Thousands of Indians cheered outside the mission control centre. (Associated Press
The $140 million mission in 2019 was intended to study permanently shadowed moon craters that are thought to contain water deposits and were confirmed by India's Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008.
Somanath said the main objective of the mission this time was a safe and soft landing on the moon.
He said the Indian space agency has perfected the art of reaching up to the moon, "but it is the landing that the agency is working on."
Numerous countries and private companies are in a race to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
In April, a Japanese company's spacecraft apparently crashed while attempting to land on the moon.
An Israeli nonprofit tried to achieve a similar feat in 2019, but its spacecraft was destroyed on impact.
www.9news.com.au
Aussies from rural Queensland to Melbourne posted on social media with different theories of what they saw last night but most did not realise it was a space mission from another continent.
The country is hoping to become just the fourth nation to achieve a soft landing on the moon.
Residents in Wynnum, Queensland and Mudgee, NSW posted footage of the rocket on social media after seeing it last night. (Supplied)
The Indian spacecraft blazed its way toward the far side of the moon on Friday in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover on the lunar surface, the country's space agency said.
Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit, took off from a launchpad in Sriharikota in southern India with an orbiter, a lander and a rover, in a demonstration of India's emerging space technology.
The spacecraft embarked on a journey that is expected to last slightly over a month before landing on the moon's surface later in August.
Applause and cheers swept through mission control at Satish Dhawan Space Center, where the Indian Space Research Organisation's engineers and scientists celebrated as they monitored the launch of the spacecraft.
Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit, took off from a launchpad in Sriharikota in southern India with an orbiter, a lander and a rover. (Associated Press)
Thousands of Indians cheered outside the mission control centre and waved the national flag as they watched the spacecraft rise into the sky.
"Congratulations India. Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey towards the moon," ISRO Director Sreedhara Panicker Somanath said shortly after the launch.
A successful landing would make India the fourth country — after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China — to achieve the feat.
The six-wheeled lander and rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, junior minister for Science and Technology.
India's previous attempt to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon's little-explored south pole ended in failure in 2019.
It entered the lunar orbit but lost touch with its lander that crashed while making its final descent to deploy a rover to search for signs of water.
According to a failure analysis report submitted to the ISRO, the crash was caused by a software glitch.
Thousands of Indians cheered outside the mission control centre. (Associated Press
The $140 million mission in 2019 was intended to study permanently shadowed moon craters that are thought to contain water deposits and were confirmed by India's Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008.
Somanath said the main objective of the mission this time was a safe and soft landing on the moon.
He said the Indian space agency has perfected the art of reaching up to the moon, "but it is the landing that the agency is working on."
Numerous countries and private companies are in a race to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
In April, a Japanese company's spacecraft apparently crashed while attempting to land on the moon.
An Israeli nonprofit tried to achieve a similar feat in 2019, but its spacecraft was destroyed on impact.
Aussies thought they saw a UFO last night but it was a rocket
www.9news.com.au
