The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday said that the Vikram lander successfully underwent a hop test when it made the soft landing again on the lunar surface. The space agency said that on command, the lander fired the engines and elevated itself by 40 cm as expected and landed safely at a distance of 30 to 40 cm away.

ISRO in an update on X (formerly Twitter) said that Vikram Lander exceeded its mission objectives and that the exercise was a ‘kick start’ to future sample return and human missions. The space agency noted that all systems are healthy and that the payloads—ChaSTE and ILSA—were redeployed successfully after the hop experiment.