India's Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander touches down on the lunar south pole in a historic first

Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Sreedhara Panicker Somanath proclaimed "India is on the Moon" as the spacecraft landed shortly after 6pm.

The Vikram lander touched down on August 23, depositing its rover to study the Moon's surface over the next two weeks.

It's the first soft landing on the lunar south pole, an extremely stategic location due to the presence of water ice in the soil.

The feat is one even NASA hasn't attempted, with the permanently shadowed region an uncharted territory for Moon expeditions.

Chandrayaan-3 was originally slated for a 2021 launch, but faced delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It wasn't India's first attempt at a lunar landing, with Chandrayaan-2 crashing into the Moon's surface in 2019 after encountering a software glitch.

Russia was also aiming for the south pole with its Luna 25 lander but it too crashed into the Moon's on August 11.

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In a speech given just minutes after touchdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated the historic achievement.

First speaking in Hindi, the PM switched to English halfway through "to address all the people of the world".

"India's successful Moon mission is not just India's alone [...] this success belongs to all of humanity," he said.

"I'm confident that all countries in the world, including those from the global south, are capable of achieving such things. We can all aspire for the Moon and beyond."