First look: India's Moon rover exits Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft to explore lunar surface

The Moon rover of India's Chandrayaan-3 exited the spacecraft on Thursday to begin its exploration of the lunar surface, local television channels reported.

The spacecraft landed on the unexplored south pole of the moon on Wednesday evening.

Here's the first photo of the rover as it came out of the lander, as tweeted by Pawan K Goenka, Chairman of INSPACe.

The Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain functional for two weeks, running a series of experiments including a spectrometer analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface.

The six-wheeled lander and rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is configured with payloads that will provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions.

Joining the US, the Soviet Union and China, India is now officially the fourth country to have landed on the Moon — and the first to have reached the unexplored lunar south pole.

Chandrayaan-3, which means "Mooncraft" in Sanskrit, follows India's successful launch of a probe into lunar orbit in 2008 and a failed lunar landing in 2019.

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