Chandrayaan-3: ISRO shares image of Vikram's landing site

NEW DELHI: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday shared an image of the site on the lunar surface where Vikram, the lander module of Chandrayaan-3, landed. Taking to social media platform X, formerly called Twitter, ISRO said, "Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The image captured by the Landing Imager Camera after the landing. It shows a portion of Chandrayaan-3's landing site. Seen also is a leg and its accompanying shadow."

"Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface," ISRO wrote on X. After the lander module Vikram of the country's third lunar mission made a safe and soft landing, ISRO chief S Somanath said, "India is on the Moon".

Officials at India's space agency ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru broke into applause after the Vikram began its powered vertical descent towards its landing site. Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is attending the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg watched the live telecast and as soon as the touchdown happened he sported a big smile and waved the tricolour.

The countdown of the Vikram hovered at 150 metres, then 130 metres, and 50 metres and decelerated as approached the moon's service before finally touching down on the lunar surface.

As the Vikram lander carrying the Pragyaan rover in its belly touched down on the lunar surface, it marked a giant leap in India’s spacefaring journey providing a well-deserved finale to ISRO’s long years of toil. This makes India the fourth country – after the US, China, and Russia – to have successfully landed on the moon’s surface, it has earned a place in record books as the first to touchdown on the south side of Earth’s only natural satellite.