India targets new moon mission in 2020

BANGALORE: India plans to make a fresh attempt to land an unmanned mission on the moon in 2020 after a failed bid last year, the head of the country’s space programme said Wednesday.

Work is going "smoothly" on the Chandrayaan-3 mission to put a rover probe on the moon’s surface, Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K. Sivan told a press conference.

"We are targeting the launch for this year but it may spillover to next year," Sivan said. Indian sources said authorities had set November as a provisional target for launch.

India seeking to become only the fourth nation after Russia, the United States and China to put a mission on the moon’s surface and boost its credentials as a low-cost space power.

The country’s Chandrayaan-2 module crash-landed on the moon’s surface in September. Sivan said the new propulsion module, lander and surface rover would cost about $35 million, with a significantly higher outlay for the launch itself.