After a 40-day journey starting from the Sathish Dhawan Space Center, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-3 mission landed successfully, becoming the first spacecraft to land near the South Pole of the Moon.

Chandrayaan-3 makes India the fourth nation, after the Soviet Union, United States, and China to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon. 

The Chandrayaan-3 successfully soft-landed on the moon at approximately 6 PM on Wednesday (23), Sri Lankan Time.

Indian Space Research Organisation Chief Dr. S. Somnath said “We have achieved soft landing on the moon, India is on the moon,” following the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Mod joined the mission control headquarters virtually from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS summit, and said India’s successful moon mission is not just India’s alone.

Chandrayaan-3 – “moon craft” in Sanskrit – took off from a launchpad in Sriharikota in southern India on July 14.

Scientists believe the south pole’s unchartered territory could hold important reserves of frozen water and precious elements.

India’s previous attempt to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon’s little-explored south pole ended in failure in 2019. 

The $140-million mission in 2019 was intended to study permanently shadowed moon craters that are thought to contain water deposits and were confirmed by India’s Chandrayaan-1 orbiter mission in 2008.