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>>15689130

https://spacenews.com/chandrayaan-3-india-becomes-fourth-country-to-land-on-the-moon/

> The Vikram lander touched down near a prime landing site at 69.37 degrees south latitude and 32.35 degrees east longitude, close to the crater Manzinus U. The descent was supported by ESA’s ESTRACK deep space tracking station in New Norcia, Australia.

> The landing was made at the highest latitude of any spacecraft to soft land on the moon. The success follows a failed attempt in 2019 with the Chandrayaan-2 mission lander.

> The landing was made at the highest latitude of any spacecraft to soft land on the moon. The success follows a failed attempt in 2019 with the Chandrayaan-2 mission lander.

> The landing also comes days after Russia’s Luna 25 spacecraft suffered an issue during an orbital maneuver and smashed into the moon.

> The lander also carries Pragyan, a six-wheeled, 26-kilogram solar-powered rover which will seek to demonstrate roving operation on the lunar surface. Its rollout is expected within the next few hours.

> The mission is chiefly a landing technology demonstrator, the lander and rover carry a number of payloads for in-situ science experiments. Vikram carries the Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere and Langmuir Probe (RAMBHA-LP), a deployable Langmuir Probe to measure plasma density near the lunar surface, a probe to measure thermal properties of lunar surface down to a depth of 10 centimeters, an instrument for detecting lunar seismic Activity, and the passive Laser Retroreflector Array provided by NASA.

> More countries and private entities could soon join this rarefied group. Japan is set to launch its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission on a H-IIA rocket at 8:34 p.m. Eastern Aug. 25 from Tanegashima Space Center.