Touch down Moon landing is another leap in the global space race

For all the risks, for all that was riding on a successful landing, the descent to the moon's surface was remarkably uneventful, if not exactly stress-free. The Vikram lander, part of India's Chandrayaan-3 mission, dropped steadily on its thrusters to the rock below, slowed to a hover as it approached the ground, and finally came to a rest on the dusty terrain.

- Ian Sample

When confirmation came that the lander was down, anxiety in the control room gave way to cheers and applause. With the soft touchdown, India became the first country to land a probe at the moon's south pole, a rugged region where deep craters lie in permanent shadow and where ice could provide water, oxygen and fuel for future missions. The first will be on the moon itself, and in lunar orbit, but these resources could also supply trips to Mars, with the benefit that they do not need to be lifted off the Earth's surface at great cost. It is a region of key scientific interest.

It may be half a century since the last Apollo mission, but landing on the moon remains a huge technical feat. India is only the fourth country to pull off a controlled landing, after the US, China and the former Soviet Union. That India chose one of the moon's poles as its destination - a tougher prospect than landing near the equator makes the success of the mission that much sweeter.