NASA: Chandrayaan-3 lander touched about 600 km from Moon's south pole

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: US space agency NASA has released an image of Chandrayaan-3 lander 'Vikram' on the lunar surface, which was captured by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

The Chandrayaan-3 lander is in the centre of the image, and its dark shadow is visible against the bright halo surrounding the Vikram.

"@NASA's LRO spacecraft recently imaged the Chandrayaan-3 lander on the Moon's surface. The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) Chandrayaan-3 touched down on Aug 23, 2023, about 600 kilometres from the Moon's South Pole,” NASA said on social media platform 'X'.

NASA said its Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) acquired an oblique view (42-degree slew angle) of the lander four days later.

The bright halo around the vehicle resulted from the rocket plume interacting with the fine-grained regolith (soil).

VIKRAM LANDER FOUND

This image shows the Vikram Lander impact point and associated debris field. Green dots indicate spacecraft debris (confirmed or likely). Blue dots locate disturbed soil, likely where small bits of the spacecraft churned up the regolith. "S" indicates debris identified by Shanmuga Subramanian. This portion of the Narrow Angle Camera mosaic was made from images M1328074531L/R and M1328081572L/R acquired Nov. 11.