India lands spacecraft on the south pole of the Moon

The Indian space mission Chandrayaan-3 completed its mission on Wednesday, according to official sources. The spacecraft successfully landed on the lunar surface becoming the first to land on the south pole of the Moon.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi called this milestone a "victory cry of a new India." It is also a victory for emerging space powers such as India, which have launched themselves into the space race in recent years. Previously, the United States, China and the USSR were the only countries to land on the Moon. The Chandrayaan-3 was India's second attempt.

A few days ago, Russia failed in its attempt to accomplish the same space feat. Its Luna-25 mission, its first in decades, was intended to be the first to land on the Moon's south pole. It would have given Russia great geopolitical returns. However, the Russian spacecraft crashed due to a miscalculation. According to Reuters, three out of ten moon landings in the last 60 years have failed.

The Indian mission, comprised of an unmanned lunar rover, is expected to remain operational on the moon for the next two weeks to carry out a series of tests and explorations in a virtually unexplored region of the moon.