India's space agency on Friday released images of the moon taken from its Chandrayaan-3 space craft as it approaches the lunar south pole, a previously unexplored region thought to contain water ice where Russia is trying to land first.
The video, taken on Thursday just after the separation of the rocket's lander from the propulsion module, showed a close-up of craters as earth's only natural satellite spun round."The Lander Module health is normal. LM successfully underwent a deboosting operation that reduced its orbit to 113 km x 157 km," the Indian Space Research Organisation tweeted later.
Russia launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years on Aug 11, taking a more direct course to reach the moon's south pole where scientists have detected water ice that could be used for fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future moon missions or a lunar colony.Rough terrain is expected to complicate a landing on the lunar south pole. A previous mission by India's space agency, the Chandrayaan-2, crashed in 2019 near where the Chandrayaan-3 will attempt a touchdown.
Both India and Russia have national interests in successful landings and in claiming the historic first at stake. Russia's space agency Roscosmos has said the Luna-25 mission would spend 5-7 days in lunar orbit before descending to one of three possible landing sites near the pole.
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