A successful soft landing is a successful soft landing, and the primary idea behind this mission was executing a precision landing, which it seems like they put it down close to where they intended to; it's just all the post-landing stuff seems to be dead in the water, unfortunately.

For what they set out to do, though, I think it's mission success. Precision landings are essential for reliable operations on the Moon, and this is a good first step towards that.

Congratulations ISRO and India on becoming the fourth country to successfully perform a soft-landing on the Moon, and the first to do so near the lunar south pole!

The Chandrayaan-3 mission consists of the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover. The spacecraft was launched atop an LVM3 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 14 July 2023 and successfully touched down between Manzinus C and Simpelius N craters a few hours ago at 12:32 UTC (23 August 2023).

You can find the initial announcement here: BBC News

In celebration of their monumental achievement, here's a list of all the countries who have successfully performed a soft landing on the Moon.

🏳️ Between 1966 and 1976, the Soviet Union successfully performed 8 soft landings. Their first success was Luna 9 on 3 Feb 1966.

🇺🇸 Between 1966 and 1972, the United States successfully performed 11 soft landings. Their first success was Surveyor 1 on 2 Jun 1966.

🇨🇳 Between 2013 and 2020, China successfully performed 3 soft landings. Their first success was Chang'e-3 on 14 Dec 2013. I actually remember that mission.

🇮🇳 And now India, as of today, 23 Aug 2023!