Chandrayaan-3: India lunar rover Pragyaan takes a walk on the Moon

India is making more space history, as just one day after the country became the first to land near the south pole, the Moon rover has now taken its first steps on the lunar surface. 

Chandrayaan-3’s rover “ramped down” from the lander and “India took a walk on the Moon!” the Indian space agency said.

India is now only the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the US, the former Soviet Union and China.  

The rover, called Pragyann, was carried to the Moon in the Vikram lander’s belly. 

After the dust had settled from the landing, the panels on one side of Vikram opened to deploy a ramp to enable Pragyaan to slide down to the lunar surface. 

It will now roam around the rocks and craters, gathering crucial data and images to be sent back to Earth for analysis. 

The rover is carrying two scientific instruments which are to help determine what minerals are present on the lunar surface and study the chemical composition of the soil.