Chandrayaan-3

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

Chandrayaan-3 made India the first nation to land near the Moon's south pole, and only the fourth country ever to achieve a soft landing on the Moon at all. It was also a redemption. Four years earlier, India's Chandrayaan-2 had reached lunar orbit successfully, but its lander, Vikram, lost control in the final moments of descent and crashed. Chandrayaan-3 was built to finish the job. Launched in July 2023, the mission took a deliberately patient, fuel-efficient path to the Moon, gradually raising its orbit around Earth before coasting out and settling into lunar orbit. The lander, again named Vikram and carrying the small Pragyan rover, separated and began its descent on 23 August 2023. This time, with strengthened legs, more capable software and the hard lessons of 2019 built in, Vikram touched down gently in the rugged highlands near the south pole — terrain far more hazardous than the smooth equatorial plains where earlier missions had landed. The landing was watched live by millions across India and celebrated as a national triumph, coming just days after a Russian lander aiming for the same region had crashed. Pragyan rolled down a ramp and spent about two weeks exploring, confirming sulphur and other elements in the soil and measuring how the temperature plunged with depth. The south polar region is the great prize of modern lunar exploration, because its permanently shadowed craters are thought to hold water ice. As the long lunar night fell, the lander and rover were put into hibernation in the hope they might survive the deep cold and wake again; they fell silent and did not. But their mission was already complete. Chandrayaan-3 had proved India could land softly on another world, did it at a fraction of the cost of comparable missions, and planted the country firmly among the leading spacefaring nations — at the very part of the Moon the world most wants to reach.

1. 2023Launch toward the MoonLaunch

   India's third lunar mission begins a patient, fuel-efficient climb to the Moon.

2. 2023Lunar orbitArrival

   Chandrayaan-3 settles into orbit and lines up its descent.

3. 2023Soft landing near the south poleLanding

   Vikram lands gently — India's first soft landing, and the first ever near the south pole.

4. 2023Pragyan rolls outMilestone

   The rover explores for about two weeks, confirming sulphur in the polar soil.

5. 2023HibernationMission end

   Lander and rover sleep for the lunar night and do not wake — the mission already complete.

Images

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