India makes waves as it lands on the south pole of the moon

India makes way for big business in the global space race, as it becomes the first country to soft land on the south pole of the moon.

India has now become the first nation to successfully land a probe in the moon's south pole, a rough area where deep craters are permanently obscured by shadows and where ice may hold the key to future missions' supplies of water, oxygen, and fuel. The first will be on the moon and in lunar orbit, but they might also provide flights to Mars, with the advantage that the materials would not need to be expensively taken from the Earth's surface. It is an important scientific area.

The descent to the moon's surface was astonishingly uneventful, if not completely stress-free, considering all the dangers and everything that depended on a successful landing. The Vikram lander, a component of India's Chandrayaan-3 mission, hovered slowly as it approached the ground before ultimately coming to rest on the dusty terrain. It descended smoothly to the rock below using its engines.

At a critical juncture, the landing enhances India's reputation as a spacefaring country. India has privatized its rocket launches, just as other nations have. Over the next ten years, India intends to increase its share of the global launch market fivefold with foreign investment. India's reputation as a low-cost producer of space launch services will support that goal.

There will undoubtedly be a need. The market for space launches is anticipated to increase from $9 billion (£7 billion) this year to more than $20 billion in 2030.