India Makes Historic Moon Landing Amid Global Race To The Lunar South Pole

India made history Wednesday as it became the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft near the Moon’s South Pole, triggering what could be a new global space race as China and the U.S. prepare to send their own missions—both crewed and uncrewed—to this scantly studied part of the moon’s surface.

The Vikram lander onboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, which translates to Mooncraft-3, successfully touched down on the lunar surface at 6:03 p.m. Indian time. ---More...