Chandrayaan-3 Moon Landing

On 23 August 2023, families all over India gathered around televisions and phone screens, holding their breath. A spacecraft called Chandrayaan-3 was slowly, carefully lowering itself toward the surface of the Moon.

When the Vikram lander touched down softly near the Moon's south pole, cheers went up in classrooms, homes and even airports. India had become the first country ever to land a spacecraft near the Moon's south pole.

Later, a small six-wheeled robot called Pragyan rolled out and quietly explored the lunar soil.

Chandrayaan-3 was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 14 July 2023 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. It was India's third mission to the Moon and the follow-up to Chandrayaan-2, whose lander had crashed in 2019.

This time, ISRO engineers made careful changes to the software, sensors and landing legs to make the mission safer.

On 23 August 2023, the Vikram lander performed a successful soft landing near the lunar south pole, at around 6:04 pm Indian Standard Time. India became only the fourth country in history to soft-land on the Moon, after the Soviet Union, the United States and China, and the first to do so near the south pole.

The Pragyan rover then rolled out and studied the surface for about two weeks. Its instruments confirmed the presence of elements like sulphur, aluminium and iron in the lunar soil, and measured seismic activity.

The mission has strengthened India's role as a major spacefaring nation and inspired a new generation of students to look at the sky.