After the moon, India launches rocket to study the sun
Following quickly on the success of India's moon landing, the country's space agency launched a rocket on Saturday to study the sun in its first solar mission. | The rocket left a trail of smoke and fire as scientists clapped, a live broadcast on the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) website showed. ● The broadcast was watched by more than 860,000 viewers, while thousands gathered at a viewing gallery near the launch site to see the lift-off of the probe, which will aim to study solar winds, which can cause disturbance on earth commonly seen as auroras. ● Named after the Hindi word for the sun, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft took flight barely a week after India beat Russia to become the first country to land on the south pole of the moon. While Russia had a more powerful rocket, India's Chandrayaan-3 out-endured the Luna-25 to execute a textbook landing. ● Prime Minister Modi is pushing for India's space missions to play a larger role on a world stage dominated by the United States and China. "He wants to recreate India's IT boom with space," said a government official who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak for Modi's office.