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India's third lunar mission is inching closer to the Moon's little-explored south pole where it aims to set down a lander and rover on 23 August.

On Thursday, the lander detached from the propulsion module, which carried it close to the Moon, beginning the last phase of its mission.

Chandrayaan-3, however, may not be the first to land near the south pole if it's beaten by a new Russian mission.

Luna-25, launched last week, is expected to land a day or two earlier.

If the Russian spacecraft - the country's first Moon mission since 1976 comes in nearly half a century when Russia was part of the Soviet Union - is successful in making a soft landing on 21st or 22nd August as planned, Chandrayaan-3 will have to settle for being a close second.

India, however, will still be only the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon after the US, the former Soviet Union and China.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said that on Friday, the lander module would begin its descent to a lower orbit. Called Vikram - after Isro founder Vikram Sarabhai - the lander carries within its belly a rover named Pragyaan, the Sanskrit word for wisdom.

Chief of India's first Moon mission Mylswamy Annadurai told the BBC that after Thursday's separation from the propulsion module, the lander will do two manoeuvres over the next few days, getting closer to the Moon with each one, and will reach an orbit of 30km by 100km a day before it lands.

Once it lands, he says, it will take a few hours for the dust to settle after which the six-wheeled rover will crawl out and roam around the rocks and craters on the Moon's surface, gathering crucial data and images to be sent back to Earth for analysis.