[WATCH] India's Historic Lunar South Pole Landing Confirmed with Exclusive Chandrayaan-3 Lander Photo, Videos

In case you missed it, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has recently triumphed with its Chandrayaan-3 mission, achieving a successful soft lunar landing near the moon's south pole.

The space agency could only display real-time graphic representations and footage from its Lander Imager Camera for its live feed at the time.

However, pictures and video evidence are now available for everyone to see.

Successful Moon Landing

This momentous achievement marks India as the fourth country, alongside the former Soviet Union, the United States, and China, to achieve the feat of landing a spacecraft on the lunar terrain.

Crucial to Chandrayaan-3's accomplishment was its autonomous lunar descent. Unlike previous missions, Scientific American reports that the delay in signal transmission between the lander and Earth made real-time guidance unfeasible.

Vikram's success hinged on its ability to orchestrate engine firings based on continuous measurements of distance, velocity, and orientation. This autonomous precision allowed Vikram to stay on its intended trajectory, culminating in a safe and successful landing.

S. Somanath, ISRO's chief, highlighted the integration of 21 subsystem improvements into Chandrayaan-3, emphasizing enhanced fuel capacity and advanced guidance, navigation, and control systems.

A plethora of ground tests, from helicopter-based to crane-based, ensured the mission's readiness for lunar descent.

Visual Confirmation

To clear doubts and prove the accomplishment, ISRO shared a special image of the Chandrayaan-3 lander on the moon's surface. You could clearly see one of its legs.

"And here at last is ISRO issuing an official post-landing image from the Chandrayaan-3 lander, which is the final confirmation we needed of a successful landing. Congrats to all those involved in the mission," Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said on X.

Furthermore, ISRO put out a two-minute video that shows the spacecraft coming down to the moon. It is really interesting to watch how it moves and see the moon's surface passing by.

Chandrayaan-3's descent took about 19 minutes and had four different parts. First, there was the "rough braking" phase, which started when the spacecraft was 30 kilometers above the moon.

During this phase, the spacecraft's four main engines, each with a power of 800 newtons, slowed down the sideways movement a lot. This careful maneuver reduced the spacecraft's speed by around 80 percent, getting it ready for the next phases.

Latest Update

ISRO shared a video showing the Pragyan rover coming out of the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander. The video also demonstrates the setup of the two-part ramp, along with the deployment of the ramp and solar panel before the rover rolls down.

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