New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS): The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the significant feat of making India the first nation to successfully land on South pole of the Moon.

C.B. Ananthakrishnan, the CMD of the public sector aerospace and defence company, said that the HAL is proud to be associated with the ISRO by contributing metallic and composite structures, all propellant tanks and bus structure for the rover and the lander, which have gone in Chandrayaan-3.

He said that it shows the HAL's unwavering commitment to Indian space programme. "HAL thanks ISRO for giving opportunity to be associated with this prestigious mission," the CMD added.

With the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, India has become the fourth country to accomplish a soft landing on the lunar surface, and the very first country to achieve this endeavour on the south pole of the Moon.

Experts believe that this achievement is envisaged to serve as fore-runners for future landing missions and other technological progress in planetary exploration.

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar said that the approved cost of Chandrayaan-3, Rs 250 crores (excluding the launch vehicle's cost), is considerably less than the budget of 2014 science-fiction movie ‘Interstellar’. India's earlier effort Chandrayaan-2 also achieved 98 per cent success, fulfilling most of the mission’s objectives though certain unexpected variations in performances of the last phase of the Lander Module led to higher velocities at touchdown of Chandrayaan-2. Building upon the past experience, the ISRO planned for all types of exigencies in Chandrayaan-3 leading to a perfect touchdown at south pole.

Dhankhar said that the soft landing of Vikram has proved that "21st century belongs to India".