Chandrayaan-3: India traverses the unexplored South

Scientists celebrate at the control room of ISRO HQ after the touch down, on Wednesday. Pics/PTI

India on Wednesday scripted history as ISRO's ambitious third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) touched down on the lunar surface, making it only the fourth country to accomplish the feat, and first to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth's only natural satellite.

In a giant leap for its space programme, Chandrayaan-3 successfully touched down on the lunar surface on Wednesday, making it only the fourth country to accomplish the feat, and first to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth's only natural satellite.

Students celebrate after the successful soft landing of ‘Chandrayan-3' on the Moon's surface, in Lucknow, on Wednesday

The No. 1

The erstwhile Soviet Union, the US and China have successfully carried out soft landings on the moon and even getting back to earth samples of soil and rocks from the lunar surface. But, India's third lunar mission landed near the south pole of the moon, a place where no spacecraft has travelled before.

"No other country has been able to land on this side of the moon before; this will change all narratives and stories about the moon," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said an elated nation with 140 crore aspirations today witnessed yet another achievement in its six-decade-long space programme and the entire world is looking up to ISRO.

"We are deeply indebted to the remarkable hard work, unparalleled ingenuity and unflinching dedication of our scientists, space engineers, researchers and everyone involved in making this mission a triumph for India," he added. The LM comprising the lander (Vikram) and the 26-kg rover (Pragyan), made the soft landing near the south polar region of the Moon at 6.04 pm, less than a week after a similar Russian lander crashed.

The mission

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 and its objectives are to demonstrate safe and soft-landing on the lunar surface, roving on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

The lander and the six-wheeled rover (with total mass of 1,752 kg) are designed to operate for one lunar daylight period (about 14 Earth days). The lander carries the rover in a compartment with a ramp for deployment onto the surface.

Tweet talk

Bill Nelson, NASA administrator @SenBillNelson
Congratulations @isro on your successful Chandrayaan-3 lunar South Pole landing! And congratulations to #India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon. We're glad to be your partner on this mission!

14 July
Day Chandrayaan-3 took off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre