"Chose South Pole Because...": ISRO Chief On Chandrayaan-3 Mission

The Chandrayaan-3 overcame several odds ahead of a successful soft landing on the surface of the moon last evening, catapulting India into the elite space club. India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon's south pole after Russia's attempt at a lunar touchdown in the same area ended in failure following an engine malfunction. "Entire instrumentation of Chandrayaan-3 is for landing on the south pole or near the south pole. But there are a huge amount of scientific possibilities on the South Pole. They are related to the presence of water and minerals on the moon," Mr Somanath says when asked why they picked the South pole.