Chandrayaan-3 Mission LIVE Updates: India launched its ambitious Chandrayaan-3 mission aboard India's heaviest rocket, Launch vehicle Mark-III a.k.a LVM3 on a journey to the Moon. The spacecraft has now entered lunar orbit and is preparing to land on the Moon.

Russia's Luna-25 has begun transmitting from its journey to Moon
In a bid to be the first to discover ice on the moon, Russia has activated the scientific instruments aboard its lunar lander, Luna-25. The spacecraft is currently en route to the moon, marking Russia's first lunar mission since 1976. This mission puts Russia in direct competition with India, which launched its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander last month, both aiming for a soft landing on the moon's south pole, an area believed to contain pockets of water ice.

As the spacecraft speeds towards its destination, its scientific instruments have been switched on and have begun transmitting data back to Earth.

"The first measurement data on the flight to the Moon has been obtained, and the project's scientific team has begun processing it," stated Russia's space agency, Roscosmos.

The Luna-25, roughly the size of a small car, is designed to operate for a year on the moon's south polar region. Scientists at Nasa and other space agencies have detected traces of water ice in the region's shadowed craters in recent years, making this a prime location for exploration.