India’s lunar spacecraft achieved a secure landing in the vicinity of the Moon’s rarely explored south pole. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) proudly declared, “Chandrayaan-3 has executed a successful soft landing on the lunar surface” from its headquarters.
Chandrayaan-3 landed on the surface shortly after 18:00 hours India time (16:30 UAE time). The space agency also confirmed this via a post on social networking site X, formerly Twitter.
By accomplishing this feat, India has now officially become the fourth nation, following in the footsteps of the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, to achieve a lunar landing. India is the first one to reach uncharted territory of the lunar south pole, according to reports.
Named “Mooncraft” in Sanskrit, Chandrayaan-3 follows India’s previous accomplishments, which include a successful lunar orbit launch in 2008 and a less fortunate lunar landing attempt in 2019.
The mission commenced in mid-July and underwent multiple Earth orbits to amass the necessary velocity for its interstellar journey.
The global race to the moon
Around the world, space agencies are engaged in a fierce competition to explore the moon’s southern pole, believed to contain frozen water reserves. India is set to become the fourth country this year to attempt a soft landing on the moon. Earlier this year, the UAE made an attempt to send its Rashid Rover to the moon, alongside the Japanese startup ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander, marking the Arab world’s inaugural lunar mission. Unfortunately, the private company lost contact with the lander in April, resulting in a crash due to an altitude miscalculation.
Russia also aimed to softly land on the moon’s southern pole, but its Lunar-25 spacecraft recently crashed on the lunar surface.
