The Chandrayaan-3 mission's Vikram lander has successfully touched down on the lunar south pole, making India the first nation to land a spacecraft on the rocky region of the Moon.
The soft landing occurred at 1.34pm (GMT) or 8.34am ET. It also means India is the fourth nation to ever land on the lunar surface, after Russia, the US, and China.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) designed Chandrayaan-3 to search for vast deposits of ice water on the lunar surface, which could one day be utilized to make sustainable human habitats on the Moon.
India's Chandrayaan-3 mission makes history
The world's leading space agencies, including Nasa, Roscosmos, and China's space administration, have set their sights on the lunar south pole as scientists believe there are large amounts of water ice hidden beneath lunar soil and inside shadowed craters.
India arguably joins their ranks by performing the first successful landing on this coveted region of the lunar surface, which is tricky to land on due to the rough terrain and the orbital trajectory required.
Prior to Chandrayaan-3, Japan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates had all tried and failed to land on the lunar south pole.
India had also failed on its previous attempt, the Chandrayaan-2 mission, though ISRO has stated it collected a wealth of valuable data during that mission that made the Chandrayaan-3 landing possible.
The Virkam soft landing comes just days after Russia's Luna-25 lander crashed on the Moon and failed to perform a soft landing on the lunar south pole.
Now, the Chandrayaan-3 mission will aim to carry out one of its main scientific objectives, which is to seek out ice water that could support human habitats on the Moon in the future.
An artist's impression of the Pragyan rover. Image: ISRO / Instagram
India's Chandrayaan-3 success for 'all of humanity'
In an address just after the landing, India's Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said "India's successful moon mission is not just India's alone", adding that it "belongs to all of humanity".
"It will help Moon missions by other countries in the future" and shows "we can all aspire for the Moon and beyond," he continued.
India reached the lunar south pole with a relatively low budget of $75 million. As one online commenter pointed out before the soft landing took place, this is considerably less than the $165 million budget for the sci-fi movie Interstellar. That post prompted SpaceX CEO to tweet, "good for India!"
As a point of reference, NASA's Artemis I mission last year, which sent an uncrewed capsule around the Moon and back cost approximately $4bn.