"Chandrayaan-3's Laser Experiment Paves Way for Safe Moon Landings"

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully transmitted a laser beam to a retroreflector on India's Vikram lander, marking the first time a moving spacecraft has used a laser to determine the exact location of a stationary object on the lunar surface. This new technique could aid future astronauts in navigating the Moon. The Laser Retroreflector Array, a collaboration between NASA and ISRO, is a small, maintenance-free device that reflects incoming light back to its source. The orbiter's laser altimeter, LOLA, primarily used for mapping the Moon's topography, took eight attempts to contact Vikram's retroreflector, demonstrating the difficulty of precisely targeting a small object from orbit.