BENGALARU, Aug 23 (AFP) - India readied Wednesday (Aug 23) for its latest attempted moon landing, a historic moment for the world's most populous nation as it rapidly closes in on milestones set by global space powers.

Chandrayaan-3, which means mooncraft in Sanskrit, is scheduled to touch down shortly after 6pm India time (8.30pm, Singapore time) near the little-explored lunar south pole, in what would be a world-first for any space programme.

A previous Indian effort failed in 2019, and the latest mission comes just days after Russia's first moon mission in almost 50 years, destined for the same region, crashed on the lunar surface.

But former Indian space chief K Sivan said the latest photos transmitted back home by the lander gave every indication that the final leg of the voyage would succeed.

"It is giving some encouragement that we will be able to achieve the landing mission without any problem," he told AFP on Monday.

Sivan added that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had made corrections after the failure of four years ago, when scientists lost contact with the previous lunar module moments before its slated landing.

"Chandrayaan-3 is going to go with more ruggedness," he said. "We have confidence, and we expect that everything will go smoothly."

The mission launched nearly six weeks ago in front of thousands of cheering spectators, but took much longer to reach the moon than those of the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived in a matter of days.

India is using rockets much less powerful than those the United States used back then, and instead the probe orbited Earth several times to gain speed before embarking on its month-long lunar trajectory.