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NEW DELHI โ India sent a spacecraft to explore water deposits on the far side of the moon in a successful launch Monday after a technical problem caused a weekโs delay.
Scientists at the mission control center burst into applause as the rocket lifted off in clear weather as scheduled at 2:43 p.m. from Sriharikota in southern India. K. Sivan, head of Indiaโs space agency, said the rocket successfully injected the spacecraft into orbit.
The Chandrayaan, the Sanskrit word for โmoon craft,โ is scheduled to land on the lunar south pole in September and send a rover to explore water deposits confirmed by an earlier, orbiting mission. India would become only the fourth nation to land on the moon, following the U.S., Russia and China.
Indiaโs first moon mission in 2008 helped confirm the presence of water. The country plans to send its first manned spaceflight by 2022.
Indiaโs launch coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission this month. It came at a time when the worldโs biggest space agencies are returning their gaze to the moon, seen as an ideal testing ground for technologies required for deep space exploration, and with the confirmed discovery of water, as a possible pit stop along the way. The U.S. is working to send a manned spacecraft to the moonโs south pole by 2024.

Beginning of Historic Journey to the Moon
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the countryโs lunar program will get a substantial boost, writing on Twitter that the countryโs existing knowledge of the moon โwill be significantly enhanced.โ
The launch of the $141 million moon mission last week was called off less than an hour before liftoff because of a โtechnical snag.โ Media reports scientists from the Indian Space Research Organization identified a leak while filling helium in the rocketโs cryogenic engine. The space agency neither confirmed nor denied the reports, saying instead that the problem had been identified and corrected.
The spacecraft that launched Monday is carrying an orbiter, lander and rover that will move around on the lunar surface for 14 Earth days. It will travel about 47 days before landing on the moon.
India put a satellite into orbit around Mars in the nationโs first interplanetary mission in 2013 and 2014.
With India poised to become the worldโs fifth-largest economy, Modiโs ardently nationalist government is eager to show off the countryโs prowess in security and technology.
India successfully test-fired an anti-satellite weapon in March, which Modi said demonstrated the countryโs capacity as a space power alongside the United States, Russia and China.
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