The Vikram module of the Chandrayaan-3 lander (India) successfully landed on the surface of the Moon at 5:45 p.m. on August 23, Indian time (7:15 p.m. the same day, Vietnam time) after a 40-day journey.
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| India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft takes pictures of the Moon on August 5. Photo: REUTERS |
This success made India the fourth country in the world to land a spacecraft on the planet, joining the US, China and the former Soviet Union.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed that the lander had successfully made a soft landing on the Moon’s surface. Vikram landed with a small robot called Pragyan. The solar-powered duo will explore the surface for one lunar day (about 14 Earth days), before the dark and cold lunar night (also 14 Earth days long) sets in, depleting their batteries.
Vikram carries four sets of scientific instruments, including a thermal probe that can penetrate about 10 centimeters into the lunar soil and record the temperature of the soil throughout the lunar day. Vikram also has a retroreflector that is expected to remain in use long after the lander is decommissioned. Meanwhile, the robot Pragyan carries the Laser Emission Spectrometer (LIBS) and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) to study the lunar soil.
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Indian schoolchildren hold posters in support of Chandrayaan-3 in Mumbai on August 22. |
Earlier, on July 14, India launched the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft from the main space center in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The spacecraft was developed with an investment of about 75 million USD. This is the first major mission since the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced policies to promote investment in private space exploration and business models related to satellite development and launch.
In 2019, ISRO launched the Chandrayaan-2 lunar probe into space but lost contact with it before its scheduled landing date of September 7, 2019.
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