Chandrayaan-3's successful soft-landing on the Moon to propel India into an elite group of nations was lauded by leading foreign media outlets as a marvellous achievement and a massive moment for the country's space exploration that has raised its profile as a spacefaring nation.

 

From The New York Times to BBC and The Guardian to The Washington Post, the historic event in India's space programme on Wednesday made headlines across the globe.

Mainstream American newspapers, many of which had been sceptical of India's space mission and sometimes even made fun of it through cartoons, noted the great Indian achievement.

"The Chandrayaan-3 mission makes India the first country to reach the lunar south polar region in one piece and adds to the achievements of the country's homegrown space programme," The New York Times reported.

The Washington Post wrote a couple of stories covering various perspectives and an opinion piece to celebrate this historic occasion.

"It is a marvellous achievement for India's space programme - and symbolic of an important moment in geopolitics. For the successful landing came just days after a Russian mission to the same region went haywire and smashed into the lunar surface like a hammer coming down on the last nail in the coffin of Russia's decline," wrote David Von Drehle, Deputy Opinion Editor of the daily.

"'India Is on the Moon': Chandrayaan-3 Spacecraft Lands on Lunar South Pole," wrote The Wall Street Journal.

The BBC headlined its article as 'Chandrayaan-3: India makes historic landing near Moon's south pole'.

"This is a massive moment for India - and it bumps them up the space superpower list," Rebecca Morelle, BBC's science editor wrote.

"Landing on the Moon is far from easy as Russia's attempt this week highlighted and many missions have failed, including India's first attempt," she said.

"The mission could cement India's status as a global superpower in space. Previously, only the United States, China and the former Soviet Union have completed soft landings on the lunar surface," CNN said in the article.

'India becomes the fourth country ever to land a spacecraft on the moon'.

Chandrayaan-3's landing site is also closer to the moon's south pole than any other spacecraft in history has ventured. The South Pole region is considered an area of key scientific and strategic interest for spacefaring nations, as scientists believe the region to be home to water ice deposits, it said.

"Working alongside allies such as the United States and France, India is part of a second wave of emerging space powers. The country's space programme has become one of the world's busiest in its development of exploratory space technology," it said.