Chandrayaan-3: How lander's camera captured the moon ahead of touchdown; WATCH

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday shared a two-minute video containing Moon's footage taken by Chandrayaan-3 lander's camera just before the historic touchdown on the lunar surface. In the video, the lander can be seen closing in on the surface and finally landing on the south polar region, which has dark patches and meteor impact craters that make landing any spacecraft difficult. 

Also read - Chandrayaan-3 update: 'All activities are on schedule, rover mobility operations have commenced,' says ISRO

India has now become the first country to land its spacecraft on the South Pole. Russia tried to land its spacecraft last week but failed to successfully land there. Its Luna-25 mission, the first in 47 years, crash-landed just two days before the planned touchdown on the South Pole, which is believed to be a reservoir of frozen water - a crucial element for any future human habitation.

Earlier this evening, the ISRO said that all activities of Chandrayaan-3 are on schedule and all systems are normal. Chandrayaan-3 comprises a lander (Vikram) and a rover (Pragyan). After the landing of Vikram, the rover rolled down and took a walk on the Moon, the ISRO said on Thursday morning.

Later, the space agency said that lander payloads - ILSA, RAMBHA, and ChaSTE - were turned on and the rover mobility operations had commenced. RAMBHA (Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere) payload will measure the near-surface plasma (ions and electrons) density and its changes with time, while ILSA (Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity) will measure seismicity around the landing site and delineate the structure of the lunar crust and mantle. 

The rover, Pragyan, has two payloads - LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS), and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). LIBS will carry out qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis to derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further the space agency's understanding of the lunar surface. APXS is used to determine the elemental composition (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe) of the lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site.