Chennai/IBNS: The Vikram lander on board India's third Lunar expedition Chandrayaan-3 made a soft landing on the Moon again and successfully underwent a hop experiment.

ISRO on Monday said the Vikram Lander exceeded its mission objectives.

On command, it fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected, and landed safely at a distance of 30 – 40 cm.

All systems performed nominally and are healthy. Deployed Ramp, ChaSTE, and ILSA were folded back and redeployed successfully after the experiment, ISRO stated.

On the importance of the hop experiment, ISRO said: "This 'kick-start' enthuses future sample return and human missions!"

In an update, it said "Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Vikram soft-landed on the Moon again! Vikram Lander exceeded its mission objectives. It successfully underwent a hop experiment."

"On command, it fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected and landed safely at a distance of 30 – 40 cm away. Importance?: This 'kick-start' enthuses future sample return and human missions!," ISRO said.

"We have touchdown...AGAIN. Yesterday the Vikram Lander fired up its thrusters once again to perform a little hop on the Lunar surface, becoming only the 2nd spacecraft to ever do so", it said. The reason for this hop was to test out aspects of future sample return missions and crewed missions to the Moon by ISRO!! #Chandrayaan3 #ISRO," it said.

Following the experiment, the Vikram Lander was set into sleep mode just like Pragyaan Rover. Both the lander and the rover are expected to reactivate once they get sunlight on Sept 22.