NEW DELHI – Pakistan’s eastern neighbor India has become the fourth nation in the world to land a spacecraft on the moon as its Chandrayaan-3 mission touched down on the lunar surface.
The world’s most populous nation raked in new title as its mission arrived at the moon’s unexplored south pole. In a statement, the Indian space agency confirmed Chandrayaan-3 landing on the southern polar region of the moon.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
'India🇮🇳,
I reached my destination
and you too!'
: Chandrayaan-3Chandrayaan-3 has successfully
soft-landed on the moon 🌖!.Congratulations, India🇮🇳!#Chandrayaan_3#Ch3
— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023
As the space race picks traction, India becomes the latest country after Russia, US, and China which land spacecraft successfully on the moon.
The country of over 1.4 billion saw huge celebrations with Indian PM Narendra Modi saying his country is now on the moon. BJP leader said India reached where no other country could as he watched the event live from South Africa during BRICS summit.
New Delhi earlier attempted a lunar south pole landing, but failure caused Chandrayaan-2 mission to crash but now the country made it as it is seen among leading players in space geopolitically.
The latest feat could improve the South Asian country’s status as global superpower in space as the mission will help scientists understand survival on the moon.
Following the touchdown, the space mission took pictures were shared showing close-up dusty gray terrain.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
The image captured by the
Landing Imager Camera
after the landing.It shows a portion of Chandrayaan-3's landing site. Seen also is a leg and its accompanying shadow.
Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface 🙂… pic.twitter.com/xi7RVz5UvW
— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023
