A NASA spacecraft has successfully pinged India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander on the moon.
A laser beam was transmitted and reflected between its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Vikram lander for the first time on the lunar surface.
This successful experiment opens the door to a new style of precisely locating targets on the moon’s surface.
NASA’s LRO pointed its laser altimeter instrument toward Vikram.
The lander was 62 miles, or 100 kilometers, away from LRO, near Manzinus crater in the moon’s south pole region, when LRO transmitted laser pulses toward it.
The Vikram lander landed in the lunar south pole region on August 23, 2023.