WATCH: Pragyan Rover Rolls Down Ramp From Chandrayaan-3 Lander For Lunar Surface Operations

ISRO has tweeted a video of the Pragyan rover ramping down from Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander to the surface of the Moon.

Chandrayaan 3 Mission: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been putting out continuous updates about Chandrayaan-3 since it landed on the lunar south pole making India the first country to do so. On Friday, ISRO tweeted a video of the Pragyan rover moving out from Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander and reaching the surface of the Moon. The Indian space agency shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) and said: "... ... and here is how the Chandrayaan-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander to the Lunar surface."

The visuals show the rover moving down from the lander and stopping as soon as it touches the lunar surface.

This comes after the spacecraft made its historic touchdown on August 23, 2023, at 6:04 pm IST. Chandrayaan-3, ISRO's third lunar exploration mission, softly landed on the lunar south pole, making India the first country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon's south pole. 

Chandrayaan-3's powered descent towards the lunar surface began after the automatic landing sequence was initiated. ISRO has shared several images of how the Moon looked like before touchdown, and also an image of the landing site.

On Thursday, ISRO said that all of Chandrayaan-3’s activities are on schedule, and all systems are normal. It added that most of the payloads of Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander have been turned on, the rover mobility operations have commenced, and the SHAPE payload on the propulsion module is also functioning correctly. 

Pragyan was rolled out of Vikram on August 23, nearly four hours after Chandrayaan-3’s touchdown. Vikram is a lander and will conduct experiments by remaining in a fixed position. Meanwhile, Pragyan will explore the lunar surface, performing scientific activities. 

Vikram is equipped with four payloads: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE), Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA), Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) or Langmuir Probe (LP), and Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA). Apart from LRA, all the lander payloads have been developed by ISRO. The LRA is an instrument developed by NASA to understand the dynamics on the Moon’s system.