India made history on Wednesday when its moon mission Chandrayaan-3 landed on the lunar surface. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) celebrated the occasion with a post on X (formerly Twitter) at 6.04pm - the exact time when Vikram lander touched down at the Moon's South Pole. In the post, ISRO congratulated the people of the country for the success of the mission. India has now become the first nation to land near the South Pole, which is the hot new destination since traces of water was found on moon.
"Chandrayaan-3 Mission: 'India, I reached my destination and you too!': Chandrayaan-3 has successfully soft-landed on the moon! Congratulations, India," the space agency said in its post.
The live broadcast of the historic moment started at 5.20pm and the lander completed four stages before landing on the Moon's surface.
In each of the stages, Vikram slowly moved towards the Earth and began the vertical descent in the final stages. Each successful stage saw celebrations from ISRO officials at the mission control room.
When it finally landed on the lunar surface, all the officials erupted in joy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in South Africa, joined through a video link and congratulated the entire team of ISRO.
"We are witness to the new flight of new India. New history has been written," PM Modi said.
Project director P Veeramuthuvel said that the lander completed all the stages "flawlessly".
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 and its objectives are to demonstrate safe and soft-landing on the lunar surface, roving on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
The Rs 600 crore Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched on July 14 on board Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM-3) rocket, and took 41 days to reach its destination.
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