India closes in on Moon landing as Russia also races to lunar South Pole

India’s space agency a few days back unveiled pictures of the Moon clicked from its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft as it came near the lunar south pole, the unexplored area thought to hold water ice, where Russia is also attempting to reach first. The video, made on Thursday right after the disconnection of the rocket’s lander from the propulsion module, revealed an extremely close in of craters as Earth’s only natural satellite spun round.

“The Lander Module (LM) health is casual. LM Victoriously enforced a deboosting operation that led to cutting down of its orbit to 113km x 157km,” the Indian Space Research Organisation texted. The Indian space agency launched the rocket carrying the spacecraft on the date of July 14, blasting off from the nation’s prominent spaceport in the south part of India, in the state Andhra Pradesh.

The lander has been decided to try a touchdown on Aug 23. Russia launched its very first Moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years on Aug 11, taking a more direct course to approach the Moon’s south pole, where scientists have believed there is water ice that could be utilized for fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future Moon missions or a lunar colony. Indian officials have very secretively relaxed the race with Russia to land first, commenting there is zero competition.