Indian lunar lander Chandrayaan-3 ascended and soft-landed today 23 August to its planned landing site near the Moon's South Pole (about 600 kilometres from the pole).
Lander first approached the low point of its orbit and fired its four engines as a braking manoeuvre at 30 kilometres above the Moon's surface.
After 11.5 minutes, the lander was 7.2 km above the surface; it maintained this altitude for about 10 seconds, then stabilised itself using eight smaller thrusters and rotated from a horizontal to a vertical position while continuing its descent.
It then used two of its four engines to slow its descent to roughly 150 metres (490 ft); it hovered there for about 30 seconds and located an optimal landing spot before continuing downward and touching down at 12:33 UTC.
Chandrayaan-3 is the third mission in the Chandrayaan programme, a series of lunar-exploration missions developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Launched on 14 July 2023, the mission consists of a lunar lander named Vikram and a lunar rover named Pragyan, similar to those launched aboard Chandrayaan-2 in 2019.
Chandrayaan-3 entered lunar orbit on 5 August.
The successful landing makes India the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon, and the first to do so near the region of the lunar south pole.
Relive the thrilling landing on this ISRO webcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLA_64yz8Ss