Indian rocket blasts into space on historic moon mission

Chandrayaan-3 launches from island in southern India in follow-up to failed effort four years ago

An Indian spacecraft has blazed its way towards the far side of the moon in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover softly on the lunar surface, India's space agency said.

Chandrayaan-3, the word for moon craft" in Sanskrit, took off from a launch pad in Sriharikota, an island in southern India, with an orbiter, a lander and a rover, in a demonstration of India's emerging space technology. The spacecraft will embark on a journey lasting slightly over a month before landing on the moon's surface later in August.