Chandrayaan 3: Vikram Lander Sends First Image from Lunar Landing Site

Bengaluru: Chandrayaan 3’s Vikram lander has successfully transmitted its first image from the lunar South Pole landing site. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed the landing at 6:04 pm IST, following a powered descent initiated at 5:44 pm. The image reveals the lander’s shadow on an uneven surface beside a smaller crater.

Vikram touched down on a highland situated between the Manzinus C and Simpelius N craters, positioned at approximately 70.8 degrees south latitude on the Moon. Interestingly, this identical site had been selected for the Chandrayaan-2 mission launched on July 22, 2019. Unfortunately, the Chandrayaan-2 lander couldn’t achieve a successful soft landing.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
Updates:

The communication link is established between the Ch-3 Lander and MOX-ISTRAC, Bengaluru.

Here are the images from the Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera taken during the descent. #Chandrayaan_3#Ch3 pic.twitter.com/ctjpxZmbom

— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023

Launched on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 is a subsequent mission to Chandrayaan-2 and took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. Chandrayaan-2 achieved a partial success by deploying an orbiter into lunar orbit. This orbiter is now linked with the Vikram lander and will collect data throughout the 14 Earth-day mission duration, equivalent to one lunar day.