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Chandrayaan-3: how India soft-landed on the Moon

The mission launched on July 14, 2023 and touched down on August 23, 2023. A step-by-step look at what ISRO set out to do and what it reported.

By BDT Explainers Desk

Bengaluru · Published 20 Oct 2026, 10:00 AM IST · 1 min read

India's third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, was built to show that the country could land safely on the Moon and drive a rover on its surface. ISRO's mission records show it did both.

The mission in brief

According to ISRO, the LVM3 M4 vehicle launched Chandrayaan-3 into orbit on July 14, 2023. The spacecraft had three parts: a Propulsion Module, a Lander Module and a Rover carried inside the lander.

ISRO listed three objectives:

  1. Demonstrate a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface
  2. Demonstrate a rover roving on the Moon
  3. Conduct in-situ scientific experiments

The landing

After a series of manoeuvres that lowered its orbit around the Moon, the Lander Module began its descent. ISRO had announced that powered descent would start on August 23, 2023, around 17:45 IST. On August 23, 2023, ISRO's mission page recorded: "Chandrayaan-3 has successfully soft-landed on the moon."

ISRO's mission design specified a prime landing site of 4 km × 2.4 km at 69.367621 S, 32.348126 E — in the Moon's southern high latitudes — and touchdown limits of a vertical velocity of no more than 2 m/s and a horizontal velocity of no more than 0.5 m/s.

What the instruments found

The lander and rover were designed to work for one lunar day — about 14 Earth days. During that time, ISRO reported on August 28, 2023 that the rover's LIBS instrument confirmed the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface through in-situ measurements.

After sunset

On September 4, 2023, ISRO said the lander and rover had been put into sleep mode, with their awakening expected around September 22, 2023. On September 22, ISRO said efforts to establish communication with them were underway.

How we verified this

Verified

Launch date and vehicle, landing date and the quoted landing statement, the August 28 sulphur finding and the September 4 and 22 updates were checked against ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 mission page. Objectives, landing-site coordinates, touchdown limits and mission life were checked against ISRO's mission details page.

Fact-checked against the sources below on 20 Oct 2026, 10:00 AM IST.

Sources

  1. 1.Chandrayaan-3 mission page and updates — Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
  2. 2.Chandrayaan-3 mission details — Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

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