- Sunday, February 23, 2025
The Indian PM announced that August 23, the day Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down on the lunar surface, would be celebrated as the “National Space Day”.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (26) directly flew to the southern city of Bengaluru from Athens, the capital of Greece, to speak with scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission and announced that the surface on the moon where the Vikram lander touched down will be named “Shiva Shakti Point”.
Terming the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission as an ‘extraordinary moment’ in the history of the south Asian nation’s space programme, the prime minister also said the place where Chandrayaan-2 lander crash-landed on the moon’s surface in September 2019 would be known as “Tiranga Point”.
He also announced that August 23, the day Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down on the lunar surface, would be celebrated as the “National Space Day”.
The prime minister, who returned from a twin-nation tour of South Africa and Greece, became emotional while delivering a speech at ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru, while lavishly praising them for their dedication and passion .
ISRO Chairman S Somanath, who announced “India is on the moon” after the lunar mission successfully landed on Wednesday, briefed the PM about the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
A large number of people, many of them holding aloft Indian Tricolours, gathered outside the city’s HAL Airport and Jalahalli Cross, which is close to ISTRAC, to greet Modi.
The prime minister had virtually joined the ISRO team at Mission Operations Complex at ISTRAC from Johannesburg, South Africa, where he had gone for the 15th BRICS summit. He said that the success of the lunar mission was not a triumph of India but of the entire humankind.
“He (Modi) reached Bengaluru directly after his visit to South Africa and Greece”, an official said.
He was also present in Bengaluru to watch the planned landing of Chandrayaan-2 mission’s ‘Vikram’ lander which went unsuccessful.
(With PTI inputs)
