India staked a new claim as a national superpower in space on Wednesday, landing its Chandrayaan-3 mission safely on the moon’s unexplored South Pole.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft launched last month and touched down on the lunar surface around 8:34 a.m. ET.
This makes India the fourth country to land on the moon, and the first to land on one of the moon’s lunar pole. The lunar South Pole has emerged as a place of exploration interest, thanks to recent discoveries of traces of water, ice on the moon.
India previously attempted lunar South Pole landing in September 2019, but a software failure caused the Chandrayaan-2 mission to crash into the surface. The South Pole is really very interesting, historical, scientific and geologic area and a lot of countries are trying to get there. Chandrayaan-3 can serve as a base for future exploration.
Student Author: Lakshita Pharswan
Class 12th – Science
