Scientist rejects India's claims they did not land on the South Pole of the moon

A Chinese scientist has dismissed India's claims that it has landed its spacecraft on the Moon's South Pole.

Last month, India became global news after landing the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft near the lunar South Pole.

While India is only the fourth country to have carried out a successful Moon landing, it is the first to have reached the southern side of the planet.

But senior Chinese scientist Ouyang Ziyuan, who was the lead scientist on China's first lunar mission, has refuted India's claims and maintained that they are nowhere near the Pole.

Speaking to Chinese-language newspaper Science Times, Ziyuan said India's rover has been downgraded to 69 degrees south latitude, a considerable distance from the South Pole.

Chinese scientist Ouyang Ziyuan

The lunar South Pole is said to sit at 88.5 and 90 degrees.

He has dismissed their claims of landing there and thinks the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is about 619 km away from the polar region.

"It's wrong," he said. "Chandrayaan-3's landing site is not in the lunar South Pole, nor in the lunar South Pole region, nor is it close to the lunar South Pole region."

Ziyuan didn't hesitate to boast that China's space program is 'more advanced'.