Chandrayaan-3 lands near the Moon's south pole
India becomes the fourth country to land softly on the Moon, and the first near its south pole.
- Chandrayaan-3 — Indian Space Research Organisation
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was founded in 1969 under the physicist Vikram Sarabhai. Its rockets were once carried to the launch pad on bicycles; by 2014 its Mangalyaan probe had reached Mars orbit on its first attempt, at a famously low cost.
- Chandrayaan-3 — Indian Space Research Organisation
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
On 23 August 2023, after a failed landing by Chandrayaan-2 in 2019, the Chandrayaan-3 lander Vikram touched down near the lunar south pole, and its rover Pragyan explored the surface. India joined the Soviet Union, the United States and China as the only countries to have landed on the Moon. Together with India’s IT industry and the many Indian-born executives running global tech firms, it has become a symbol of a new national self-image.
- Chandrayaan-3 — Indian Space Research Organisation
Why it matters today
The landing, watched live by millions, became a symbol of the confident, technological India that many Indians feel the world still overlooks. The space programme's frugality, and the women scientists in its control rooms, are points of particular pride.