‘India is on the Moon’: ISRO chief S Somanath on Chandrayaan-3's successful lunar landing

Officials at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru broke into applause after the Vikram began its powered vertical descent towards its landing site.

We have achieved soft landing on moon. India is on the Moon", says Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath after Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully landed on the moon’s South Pole, making it the first country to have achieved the historic feat and bringing to an end the disappointment over the crash landing of the Chandrayaan-2, four years ago.

ISRO chief S Somanath (ANI/X)

While applauding the efforts of the team of scientists behind the success of the mission, Somanath said, "I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people behind this mission."

He thanked the project director, mission operations executive, and other team members.

PM Modi, who is in the South Africa to attend the five-nation BRICS Summit, waved the tricolour the moment Chandrayaan-3 landed 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.

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.

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.

ISRO had been releasing a series of up-close images of the moon, assisting the lander module in determining its position (latitude and longitude) by matching them against an onboard moon reference map.

The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14.