Chandrayaan-3 successfully lands, India joins elite space club

Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing: ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar probe successfully soft-landed at 6:04 pm today. A few days ago, Russia’s Luna-25 probe crashed in the same area. India has created history by becoming the first country to land ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the south pole of the moon.

The Indian Space Research Organization’s lander Vikram has successfully landed near the south pole of the moon, led by Chandrayaan-3. This is India’s second attempt after the failed soft landing of Chandrayaan-2. The lander began its descent at 5:20 pm IST and touched down on the lunar surface at 6:04 pm.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh on July 14. It took the spacecraft more than a month to reach the vicinity of the Moon as the Indian Space Research Organisation did not have a powerful rocket to propel it directly into lunar orbit.

Three days ago, Russia’s lunar probe Luna-25 crashed on the lunar surface due to a communications failure. It was Russia’s first lunar probe in nearly 50 years since the last successful landing in 1976.