Chandrayaan-3 was successfully launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Friday, July 14. The spacecraft will travel around six weeks before it reaches the moon. ISRO aims to soft-land near the moon’s south pole on August 23 – a feat that has never been done before. The News Minute’s Korah Abraham caught up with science journalist Chethan Kumar of the Times of India on why the moon is a fascinating place for scientists and why other international space agencies including the US and China have planned manned missions to the lunar surface. Chethan also explained the learnings of ISRO scientists following the failure of Chandrayaan-2 to soft-land on the moon in 2019.  

Watch: Chethan Kumar speaks on Chandrayaan-3