If Chandrayaan-3 is successful, India will be the first country to land near the Moon's little-explored south pole. One of its major goals is to hunt for water-based ice, which scientists say could support human habitation on the Moon in future.

India's attempt comes just days after Russia's Luna-25 crashed while trying to touch down in the same region. If successful, it will also be only the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon - the US, the former Soviet Union and China have all landed near the equator.

India's attempt to land its Chandrayaan-2 mission near the south pole in 2019 was unsuccessful - it crashed into the lunar surface.