I know this is gonna upset some of you guys who think the Earth is flat and the Apollo missions were a hoax, but India landed a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon today just after 8 a.m. Eastern.
The lunar "Chandrayaan-3" mission involves a lander dubbed Vikram and a rover named Pragyan. It follows a crashed mission in 2019 (and a failed Russian mission to the same region just several days ago).
Here's a photo from the rover as it exited the lander:
And the landing:
Needless to say, people were excited!
The landing site was chosen because it contains ice in craters that could be used for manned missions or automated mining/fabrication.
The media thought it was very important that you know India landed "softly."
😂
I guess it does differentiate between the nations that have just plowed a rocket into the moon's surface versus those with a bit more finesse!
You'll notice that only one nation has ever completed a manned landing. So while I'm happy for India to have joined the party, I'll be over here waiting for them to catch up to the U.S. circa 50 years ago.
Still, it should be noted that this historic accomplishment comes at a time of waning influence for America. Indian Prime Minister Modi congratulated the team behind the mission from a conference in South Africa involving BRICS - an economic coalition of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa that is looking to unhitch the world economy from the inflated U.S. dollar.
Fortunately, the coalition still has more than a few tweaks to work out:
Plus, even though NASA is woke, America has South Africa's biggest weapon: Elon Musk.
And man, let me tell you, no one makes rockets like SpaceX makes rockets.
(Yeah, that's real footage, not CGI)
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