Locals and officials in Guwahati, Assam, cheered as India's Chandrayaan-3 made a successful landing near the Moon's south pole on August 23.

The mission saw India become just the fourth country to land on the Moon joining the US, the former Soviet Union, and China.

After a 40-day journey starting from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission has landed successfully. The Vikram lander should made a soft lunar landing at 6.04 PM IST on August 23.

ISRO started the automatic landing sequence at 5.44 PM IST. The Vikram lander is now using its onboard computers and logic to try to make a soft landing on the Moon. While mission controllers at ISTRAC will monitor it closely, the onboard systems of the lander will be doing all the heavy lifting.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission is the follow-up to the Chandrayaan-2 mission of 2019, when the Vikram lander crashed into the lunar surface. The primary objective of the mission is simple—showcase the space agency’s capability to complete a soft-landing on the Moon. With the mission, India has joined a small and exclusive club of countries that have managed to soft land on the Moon. So far, the club has three members—the United States, the Soviet Union and China.