• Source:PTI
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ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) congratulated the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on the successful launch of Japan's lander mission to the Moon. Following closely from India's historic lunar accomplishment, Japan on Thursday launched the "Moon Sniper" mission in an effort to build on its space programme and recover from earlier failures.

"Best wishes for another successful lunar endeavour by the global space community," the Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO wrote on 'X', formerly known as Twitter.

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On August 23, India created history with the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon's south pole. With this, India became the fourth country in the world to achieve this feat after after United States, China and Russia and the first to land on the lunar south pole. Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched by ISRO on July 14 from India's main space centre in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh which successfully entered lunar orbit on August 5.

After the successful landing on the lunar surface, ISRO's next likely Moon mission is in partnership with JAXA, a venture that's gathering steam. Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX) is a collaborative venture between JAXA and the Indian space agency.

The lander and rover are currently being developed by ISRO and JAXA, respectively. Along with instruments from ISRO and JAXA, the rover will also have equipment from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

According to JAXA, the LUPEX mission is aimed at exploring the lunar polar region's suitability for establishing a lunar base for sustainable activities; obtaining knowledge regarding the availability of lunar water-ice resources, and demonstrating lunar and planetary surface exploration technologies such as vehicular transport and overnight survival.

On September 2, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency launched Aditya-L1, the nation's first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun.

(With Inputs From Agencies)

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