The Beresheet spacecraft captured this "selfie" during its landing maneuver on April 11, 2019. It was about 22... Read More

NEW DELHI: The botched landing of Israel ’s moon craft Beresheet early on Friday morning brought India back in the race to become the fourth country in the world after Russia, US and China to land on the moon.

Indian Space Research Organisation ( Isro ) almost lost the race to Israel in January this year when it had postponed its Chandrayaan-2 mission involving an orbiter, a lander and a rover till April. Later, the Rs 800cr second moon mission got delayed again for a month and is now scheduled for May launch.

However, Israel stuck to its deadline and its 585-kg craft with 1.5 metre height was launched by Space X’s Falcon-9 rocket on February 21. After a month and a half in transit, Beresheet was able to reach the lunar orbit on April 4. However, all the efforts of Israeli private organisation SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries failed when the craft developed a technical snag 10 km before the moon touchdown.

Isro, on other hand, is doing all tests required for the lunar mission as it doesn’t want to take any chances. Speaking to TOI, Isro chairman K Sivan had said, “We are not in any moon race. Our priority is Chandrayaan-2 should land successfully on the moon in its very first attempt. We also want the liftoff should be within the specific launch window as it will help the rover use the full lunar day (equal to 14 earth days) on the moon’s surface and perform all scientific experiments.” Recently Isro’s Vikram lander developed fractures in two of its four legs during a landing test and the agency is trying its best to make it strong for the real landing.

The landing of 3,290-kg Chandrayaan-2 craft will be much more difficult than Israel’s Beresheet. While Beresheet tried to touch down on a plain of solidified lava, known as the Sea of Serenity, which has a flattened surface and more exposure to the sun, Chandrayaan-2 will explore the south pole of the moon, mostly an uncharted territory. Only China’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft had recently in January landed on the moon’s far side, also known as the dark side because it faces away from the Earth and remains comparatively unknown.

Speaking to TOI, Israel ambassador to India Ron Malka said, “Though we landed on the moon but not the way we wanted to. A tiny country dreamt big and made it to the moon. We call it ‘Beresheet Effect’. It is a message to children across the world that they should aspire for big things in life and work hard to achieve them.”

Wishing Isro’s Chandrayaan-2 mission a great success, the ambassador said Israel’s space cooperation with its “strategic partner” India will cover all space technologies which are beneficial for its people.

