An Indian lunar probe is scheduled to touch down on the moon, presenting an opportunity to rectify a previous mission's shortcomings from four years ago. This attempt comes shortly after a Russian spacecraft experienced a crash landing on the lunar terrain.
"The mission is on schedule," the Indian space agency ISRO posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday.
The spacecraft is due to land at 6:04 pm India time (1234 GMT), although as with all space missions, the landing could be postponed at the last minute.
A decision is expected shortly before the planned landing, based on the conditions on the moon, Nilesh M. Desai of ISRO told Indian news agency ANI.
The unmanned mission, Chandrayaan-3, was launched in mid-July. "Chandrayaan" means "lunar vehicle" in Sanskrit.
If the probe lands successfully, the Indian space agency is hoping to explore the southern side of the moon for around two weeks. The area has been little explored but scientists say it may hold ice and other minerals.
So far, only the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China have managed successful soft landings, meaning a spacecraft makes a transition from the rapid speeds required to rocket through space, to zero.
India's first attempt failed in 2019 when the landing module crashed onto the moon's surface due to problems with the brakes during its final approach.
Russia added to the lunar debris on Sunday when space probe Luna-25 slammed into the moon's surface after an "unplanned situation" and was destroyed, space agency Roscosmos said.
Luna-25 was also supposed to land near the moon's south pole, in what was Russia's first lunar mission in almost 50 years.
