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Roscosmos congratulates India on Chandrayaan-3’s successful lunar landing

Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov has also extended his congratulations to India for their successful lunar mission

MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos has extended its congratulations to their colleagues in India after they successfully landed a spacecraft on the Moon’s surface.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) reported earlier in the day that India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully landed on the lunar surface.

"State Space Corporation Roscosmos would like to congratulate our Indian colleagues on the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft," the statement reads, adding that the exploration of the Moon is an important endeavor for all mankind as in the future, it can be turned into a platform for the further research of space.

Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov has also extended his congratulations to India for their successful lunar mission.

"This is a historic triumph as Chandrayaan-3 lands flawlessly on the Moon's South Pole! Humanity's quest for space exploration takes a monumental leap forward. Kudos to the brilliant minds behind this remarkable feat!" Alipov stated on his X social network (formerly known as Twitter) page.

According to an ISRO live broadcast, the spacecraft successfully made a soft landing on the Moon’s surface at 6:03 p.m. (3:33 p.m. Moscow time). ISRO CEO Sridhara Somanath confirmed the successful landing. "The spacecraft has successfully landed! India is on the Moon!" the CEO said, speaking from the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), its mission control center.

The Vikram lander delivered a small 26-kilogram Pragyan rover to the lunar surface. Thus, India has become the fourth country in the world (after the USSR, the US and China) that managed to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon.

This is India’s third expedition to the Moon. The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was sent to the Moon in November 2008. The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was launched on July 22, 2019, but on this occasion, the ISRO failed to soft-land the module, crashing instead.