India's Moon Mission-2 sends first pictures of Earth

India's second Moon Mission, or Chandrayaan-2, which was launched on July 22, has sent its first pictures of the Earth, tweeted the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday.

Screenshot of the Indian Space Research Organisation's twitter account shows the first pictures of the Earth sent by Chandrayaan-2, India's second Moon Mission. [Photo: China Plus]

The Indian space agency tweeted a total of five pictures taken by Chandrayaan-2.

"First set of beautiful images of the Earth captured by Chandrayaan2's Vikram Lander. Earth as viewed by Chandrayaan-2 'LI4' Camera on Aug. 3," tweeted ISRO.

The Moon Mission has so far completed four of the total five orbits of the planet Earth. The fifth and last orbit it slated to complete will be on Aug. 6.

The first set of pictures tweeted by ISRO evoked joyful comments from among the countrymen on Twitter.

The "Lander" and the "Rover" are expected to touch down near the Lunar South Pole in early September.

If successfully carried out, India would become the fourth country, following the United States, Russia and China, to make a soft landing on the moon surface.

The nearly 150 million U.S. dollars worth of Moon Mission aims at gathering data on water, minerals and rock formations on the lunar surface.