India approves Chandrayaan-5 moon mission

The India government has approved plans for the Chandrayaan-5 moon mission, the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization V Narayanan said on Monday. At an event at the ISRO headquarters, Narayanan said that the Chandrayaan would include a 250-kilogram rover that would study the moon's surface. "This advanced rover aims to conduct detailed studies of the Moon's surface and composition," he added.

In February, the country's Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said that India will launch the Chandrayaan-4 mission in 2027 to bring back samples of moon rocks to the Earth. The space agency also aims to launch Chandrayaan 5, and 6 by the next decade, with an aim "to achieve the milestone of a $44 billion space sector by 2035”.