India's Chandrayaan-3 has successfully landed on the Moon’s surface on Wednesday (August 23), making India only the fourth country after the erstwhile USSR, the US and China to make a soft landing on the lunar surface.
With the successful landing, India also became the first country to land near the Moon’s South Pole.
"India is now on the Moon," announces PM Narendra Modi immediately after the Vikram lander touched down on the lunar surface.
Inside the lander is the six-wheeled Pragyaan rover, which, if everything goes as planned, it will then roam around the rocks and craters on the Moon gathering crucial data and images to be sent back to Earth for analysis, according to a BBC news report.
Scientists believe craters that are permanently in shadow on the dark side of the Moon may hold frozen water.
All previous missions to the Moon have touched down near the equator - but exploring the south pole is key to the hunt for water.
Chandrayaan-3, the third lunar mission of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), had been launched on July 14, 2023.
