The historic mission saw the national space agency soft-land the spacecraft's lander module dubbed Vikram on the moon on 23 August 2023, thereby making India the fourth country to soft-land on the Earth’s natural satellite after the US, the former Soviet Union, and China
India becomes the first country to touch down near the lunar south pole with the Chandrayaan-3 mission. (Indian Space Research Organisation (GODL-India)/Wikimedia Commons)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the south pole of the moon, making India the first country to touch down near the lunar south pole.
ISRO announced in a tweet: “India, I reached my destination and you too! Chandrayaan-3 has successfully soft-landed on the moon.”
In the historic mission, India’s national space agency soft-landed the spacecraft’s lander module dubbed Vikram on the moon on 23 August 2023. This made India the fourth country to soft-land on the moon after the US, the former Soviet Union, and China.
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: ”Through the hard work and talent of our scientists, India has reached the South Pole of the Moon where no other country in the world has ever reached.
”From today onwards, the myths associated with the Moon will change, narratives will change, and even proverbs for the new generation will change.”
Chandrayaan-3 was launched on 14 July 2023 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, which is India’s main spaceport located in Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
It is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 with an objective to showcase end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
Following the landing of the Vikram lander, ISRO announced the successful deployment of Pragyan rover. The job of the rover will be to carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
ISRO also said that the communication link has been established between the Chandrayaan-3 lander and the organisation’s MOX-ISTRAC centre in Bengaluru.
According to various media reports, the Chandrayaan-3 mission entails a total budget of approximately INR6.15bn ($75m).
In 2019, India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission effectively deployed an orbiter, however its lander crashed.
India’s triumphant lunar soft-landing comes after Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and crashed into the moon earlier this week.