India’s goal of becoming a space power has moved a step closer with the successful launch of the country’s first lunar mission in more than a decade.

The Chandrayaan 2 rocket blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India’s east coast on Monday, a week after the country’s space agency called off the initial launch with an hour to spare after scientists uncovered a technical problem.

The $140m mission, if successful, would place India alongside the US, Russia and China as the only countries to have pulled off a controlled Moon landing. Narendra Modi, prime minister, wrote on Twitter that “every Indian is immensely proud today”, while Sushma Swaraj, a former foreign minister from the leader’s Bharatiya Janata party, congratulated the scientists for “making India a space superpower”.