India took the first step toward its second attempt to land on the Moon on Friday with the launch of its Chandrayaan-3 mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the southeastern part of the country. //

To date, only the Soviet Union, the United States, and China have made soft landings on the Moon. India will attempt to become the fourth country to do so and is the first of as many as half a dozen missions that will attempt to land on the Moon during the next six months.

India has developed the Chandrayaan-3 mission on a shoestring budget, about $90 million. But it is important for the Indian space agency to demonstrate competence with this second attempt—especially as its neighbor China has flown a series of increasingly complex and successful lunar missions, including landing on the far side of the Moon and returning regolith samples to Earth. If successful, the Vikram lander would touch down further south than any previous lunar mission.