The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released the first and exclusive footage of Pragyan Rover ramping down the lunar surface on Friday morning (August 25). The National Space Agency had earlier confirmed that the rover has begun its moonwalk on the Moon’s surface.
The video shared by ISRO on X (formerly known as Twitter) shows a smooth ramp walk of the rover Pragyan out of the lander. The rover will now analyse the lunar surface for the next two weeks at least.
The historic clip of the Pragyan rover was posted today after the successful landing of the spacecraft on the lunar south pole on August 23, and the post has received a huge response from netizens.
“Here is how the Lander Imager Camera captured the moon’s image just prior to touchdown…and here is how the Chandrayaan-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander to the Lunar surface,” ISRO said in two consecutive posts on X.
Take a look:
‘All activities as per planned and normal’
The space agency has been giving out timely updates on India’s third lunar mission. Earlier, IRSO also informed that all activities were as per planned and normal.
“All activities are on schedule. All systems are normal. Lander Module payloads ILSA, RAMBHA and ChaSTE are turned ON today. Rover mobility operations have commenced. SHAPE payload on the Propulsion Module was turned ON on Sunday,” said ISRO.
India became only the fourth nation after the US, Russia and China to successfully conduct a lunar landing mission. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft put down the Vikram lander on the lunar surface, tilting to a horizontal position ahead of landing. The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14.