Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan Rover Begins Walk on Moon, Confirms ISRO

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday said that Pragyan Rover began its moonwalk on the lunar surface. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), ISRO said, “Chandrayaan-3 Mission. Chandrayaan-3 Rover to MOX, ISTRAC, Moon walk begins!”

Earlier today ISRO also released the images of the Lander Imager Camera which captured the moon’s image just before the touchdown on the lunar surface. 

“Here is how the Lander Imager Camera captured the moon’s image just prior to touchdown,” ISRO posted on X. 

After a 40-day journey into space, the Chandrayaan-3 lander, ‘Vikram’, touched down on the uncharted lunar South Pole on Wednesday evening, making India the first country to do so.

India also became only the fourth nation after the US, Russia and China to successfully conduct a lunar landing mission. The country has also become the first nation to make a soft landing on the south pole of the Moon.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft put down the Vikram lander on the lunar surface, tilting to a horizontal position ahead of landing.

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

A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle was used for the launch of the spacecraft that was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then, it went through a series of orbital manoeuvres before zeroing in on the moon’s surface.