India launches spacecraft on mission to the moon

Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 (Indian Space Research Organisation via AP)

India has launched a spacecraft into space on a mission to the far side of the moon in a follow-up bid to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover softly on the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-3, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, blasted off from a launch pad in Sriharikota with an orbiter, a lander and a rover.