Skip to main content

Watch India’s historic Chandrayaan-2 mission land a spacecraft on the moon

India is hoping to become the fourth nation make it to the moon when it attempts to land its Chandrayaan-2 robotic spacecraft on Friday afternoon — and you can watch the historic event live.

India launched its mission to the moon in July, with its multiple robotic probes reaching lunar orbit in August. If everything works out well, the lander — which has been named Vikram — will fire up its engine and slowly fall to the moon’s surface at some point between 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. PT on Friday, September 6.

Recommended Videos

India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), expects to begin live coverage of the landing at 12:40 p.m. PT, which you can livestream on YouTube. If the mission is a success, India will join an exclusive club: Only the United States, Russia, and China have landed on the moon so far.

The craft will land in the area of the moon’s south pole, and after a few hours, a rover will begin to explore the region in the hopes of learning more about it. Most importantly, it’s looking for signs of water — most likely ice — in the unexplored area. Along with an orbiter that will remain above the moon, the ISRO expects to operate the Chandrayaan-2 mission about a year.

“Through this effort, the aim is to improve our understanding of the Moon — discoveries that will benefit India and humanity as a whole,” the ISRO wrote about the mission on its website. “These insights and experiences aim at a paradigm shift in how lunar expeditions are approached for years to come — propelling further voyages into the farthest frontiers.”

Meet Vikram — Chandrayaan 2’s Lander!

This is India’s second mission to the moon — the ISRO launched Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008, though that spacecraft remained in orbit and took photos in order to map the lunar surface. If all goes well with Friday’s mission, India plans another mission, Chandrayaan-3, at some point in 2024.

India is the latest country to send a spacecraft to the moon, but it’s not alone. The United States, China, Russia, Japan, and Israel all have their own lunar missions in the works.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Mathew Katz
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Mathew is a news editor at Digital Trends, specializing in covering all kinds of tech news — from video games to policy. He…
How to watch Firefly launch its Blue Ghost mission to the moon on Tuesday night
Rendering of the Blue Ghost on the moon's surface.

This week will feature a historic event as Firefly Aerospace launches its first mission to the moon. The Blue Ghost mission aims to put a lander on the moon carrying NASA science experiments, as part of NASA's efforts to get private companies involved in lunar exploration. If the landing succeeds, it will be just the second soft lunar landing by a private company, following the Intuitive Machines Odyssey lander last year.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost mission will launch late at night on Tuesday, January 14, or Wednesday, January 15. Using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the Blue Ghost will launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch will be liveistreamed by NASA, and you can watch it either on YouTube or by using the video embedded below:

Read more
Watch NASA’s SLS rocket take one small step toward the Artemis II moon mission
The core stage of NASA's SLS rocket.

Artemis II Core Stage Moves to High Bay 2

Although it won’t be blasting off until mid-2026 at the earliest, preparations are already well underway for the launch of NASA’s highly anticipated Artemis II mission.

Read more
China plans to use this spacesuit for its first crewed moon landing
China's spacesuit for its first lunar landing.

China Unveils Moon-Landing Spacesuit for First Time

China is aiming to put its first citizens on the moon by 2030, and it’s just unveiled the newly designed spacesuit they’ll be wearing when they perform the historic feat.

Read more