A roar of triumph swept across mission control in Bengaluru as Chandrayaan-3’s lander gently touched the lunar surface on Wednesday. “India is on the Moon,” said a smiling and obviously relieved S Somanath, chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The sense of history was palpable — not just because India is only the fourth country to land on the Moon, after the US, China and Russia — but because Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander is also the first to touch down near the unexplored south pole.
It will not be the last. Half a century after the end of the cold war-era space race between the Soviet Union and the US, an unprecedented number of countries are preparing their own lunar adventures.
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