India's Chandrayaan-3 landed on the south pole of the moon Wed., making history as the first spacecraft to do so.

The unmanned spacecraft landed at 8:30 a.m. ET, per the WaPo. India is now the fourth nation to stage a moon landing.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S. Somanath: "India is on the moon!" (WaPo)

India is the first nation ever to land on the moon's south pole, a territory with "vital reserves of frozen water." (WaPo)

Wed.'s landing was years in the making: in 2019, a similar moon landing mission failed after a software issue. (WaPo)