India just became part of an exclusive club. With the successful touchdown of its Vikram lander today, it is now just the 4th nation to soft-land a spacecraft on the moon.

This is a massive moment for India – and it bumps them up the space superpower list.

Landing on the Moon is far from easy – as Russia’s attempt this week highlighted – and many missions have failed, including India’s first attempt.

But it was second time lucky, and India now joins three other nations – the US, the former Soviet Union and China – who’ve successfully touched down on the lunar surface.

The entire mission was called Chandrayaan-3 which means “moon craft” in Sanskrit. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrate the achievement from South Africa where he is participating in the BRICS meeting.

“On this joyous occasion…I would like to address all the people of the world,” he said. “India’s successful moon mission is not just India’s alone. This is a year in which the world is witnessing India’s G20 presidency. Our approach of one Earth, one family, one future is resonating across the globe.

“This human-centric approach that we present and we represent has been welcome universally. Our moon mission is also based on the same human-centric approach,” Modi added. “Therefore, this success belongs to all of humanity, and it will help moon missions by other countries in the future.”

NASA administrator Bill Nelson congratulated India’s team at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Congratulations @isro on your successful  Chandrayaan-3 lunar South Pole landing! And congratulations to #India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon. We’re glad to be your partner on this mission! https://t.co/UJArS7gsTv

— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) August 23, 2023

NASA is a partner in the mission because India is using NASA deep space relay network to communicate with the spacecraft. Once the dust settles the next part of the mission will be releasing a small 6-wheel rover called Pragyaan.

It will then begin the Moon walk – moving at a speed of 1cm per second, it will roam around the rocks and craters, gathering crucial data and images.

Pragyaan will only communicate with the lander which will send the information to the orbiter from Chandrayaan-2 – which is still circling the Moon – to pass it on to the Earth for analysis.

The entire mission is scheduled to last two weeks, starting with sunrise at the landing site today and ending when the sun sets there two weeks from now. At that point the battery powered lander will be in the dark for two weeks and unable to operate. The BBC reports it’s unknown if the lander will come back to life when the sun rises again a month from now.

In addition to the political and PR benefits, this mission does have real scientific value. India is the first nation to land near the moon’s south pole which scans have indicated is the area of the moon most likely to have ice. It’s thought that a supply of water would be significant for future crewed missions to the moon as it could be turned into drinking water or even rocket fuel.

The NY Times notes that there are probably three more lunar missions coming this year alone.

The next mission will launch on Friday, Aug. 26. It’s called Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, and comes from Japan’s space agency, JAXA. SLIM aims to test the country’s lunar landing technologies; JAXA has yet to announce a landing date for the mission…

Two American companies are also vying to set down on the lunar surface later this year. They are participants in a program called Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, in which NASA pays private businesses to send experiments to the surface of the moon.

A lander from the first company, Intuitive Machines, of Houston, could launch as early as Nov. 15 on a SpaceX rocket. It will head to the lunar south polar region.

The other lander built by Astrobotic Technology and had a setback in April (see below) but is still on track for a launch this year.

Outside of the test rig/ stand. Test article is inside (you can’t see it). Hydrogen leak. H2 accumulated inside the rig. Found an ignition source. Burned fast. Over pressure caved in our forward dome and damaged the rig. pic.twitter.com/0d0KpI1ggj

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) April 13, 2023

Finally, here’s the livestream of the landing. This shows the final descent from 1 kilometer above the surface to the landing (watch the altitude indicator on the far right). The lander actually hovered at 150 meters to ensure there were no obstacles directly below it. Then everyone goes crazy when it touches down. Reportedly, there were around 8 million people watching this livestream as it happened (which may be a record). That doesn’t include millions more who were watching it live on television. Congratulations, India.

Update: Pragyaan, the little rover, has been deployed.

CHANDRAYAAN 3 ROVER GETTING DEPLOYED🇮🇳!!!!

This is the best day of my life😭😭😭#Chandrayaan3 #Chandrayaan3Landing #isro pic.twitter.com/vXh7qsXRds

— RocketGyan (@rocketgyan) August 23, 2023

Also this is pretty great. Reaction from people in the street to the initial landing.

Pubic at Surat diamond market witnessing historic #Chandrayaan3 landing pic.twitter.com/E1TID2bkqp

— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) August 23, 2023

Reuters just posted this.

Footage from different Indian cities showed people dancing, waving Indian flags, setting off firecrackers and playing drums after the country's successful south pole lunar landing https://t.co/8C5oyI3H8y #Chandrayaan3 pic.twitter.com/ZlXT9FBqKb

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 23, 2023