As India continues to explore the moon after becoming only the fourth nation to successfully land, a team in Cornwall is playing an important role in the mission.
Goonhilly Earth Station (GES) on the Lizard Peninsula has been providing the essential comms as the spacecraft orbited the moon, and for Chandrayaan-3 lander on the surface, working with the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Chandrayan-3 Rover will now conduct experiments over 14 days, following a successful landing at 1.34pm BST on Wednesday.
This will include an analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface.
GES said: “A huge congratulations to our friends in India on becoming the fourth nation to achieve a soft landing on the moon and for being the first to land near the lunar south pole!
“A huge thanks also to our colleagues at ESA Operations who have coordinated support. Here's to collaboration and to making history!”
The lunar rover descended a ramp from the lander of the Indian spacecraft within hours of its historic touch-down, Indian space officials have said.
It landed on uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water.
Indian Space Research Organisation chairman S Somnath said the lander had touched down close to the centre of the 2.8-mile-wide area that had been targeted for the landing.
“It landed within 300 metres (985ft) of that point,” the Press Trust of India has reported him as saying.
Mr Somnath explained that the study will look at the mineral composition of the moon, as well as the atmosphere of the moon and the seismic activities there.
India previously had a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, but now joins the USA, Soviet Union and China to reach the milestone.
PA reports that the mission began more than a month ago at an estimated cost of 75 million dollars (£59 million). Mr Somnath said that India would next attempt a manned lunar mission.
India’s success comes just days after Russia’s Luna-25, which was aiming for the same lunar region, spun into an uncontrolled orbit and crashed.
It would have been the first successful Russian lunar landing after a gap of 47 years. Russia’s head of the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos attributed the failure to the lack of expertise due to the long break in lunar research that followed the last Soviet mission to the moon in 1976.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here