Chandrayaan 3, the robotic mission that will land India’s probe on the moon for the first time, has overcome major hurdles ahead of its scheduled launch on Friday morning, 14 July, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

“Mission readiness review completed. Board authorized launch. Countdown begins tomorrow,” – announced ISRO today (July 12) on Twitter.

The launch is scheduled for 05:05 ET (09:05 GMT or 14:35 local time) on Friday aboard an LVM3 rocket from Sriharikota Island off the east coast of India.

Chandrayaan 3 will send a moon landing and rover duo with a landing near the moon’s south pole scheduled for late August. The success of this attempt will be historic: to date, only three countries (the United States, the Soviet Union, and China) have successfully landed a spacecraft on the Moon’s surface.

India’s lander and rover duo is designed to operate over a lunar day (about 14 Earth days) and collect various data about their environment with a range of scientific instruments.

“Chandrayan-3” is India’s third mission to the Moon and its second soft landing attempt. The first attempt in September 2019 failed when the Chandrayaan-2 landing duo crashed hard onto the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan 2 also had a slightly better performing orbiter; The spacecraft continues to collect data from its position around the Moon today. Chandrayaan-3 does not have an orbiter, but the mission’s propulsion module contains an instrument to explore the Earth from afar. ISRO officials said such data should aid in future searches for potentially habitable exoplanets.