Prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called up Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath from South Africa’s Johannesburg to congratulate him on Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing on moon and said he would soon visit them in Bengaluru to greet the entire team in person.
PM Modi, who is in South Africa to attend the 15th BRICS summit congratulated Somanath and his whole team on the success of the mission. “Please convey my greetings to everyone. If possible, I would personally greet you very soon,” he further said.
After scripting history by becoming the first country to successfully soft-land on the moon’s south pole, ISRO sent out a message of congratulations to the nation.
“Chandrayaan-3 Mission: ‘India, I reached my destination and you too!’: Chandrayaan-3,” posted ISRO on X (formerly Twitter).
Following the landing of the Chandrayaan-3 moon mission at 6:04pm today, Somnath said, “India is now on the Moon!”
India’s ambitious Moon mission Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar south pole at 6.04 pm on Wednesday, propelling the country to an exclusive club of four and making it the first country to land on the uncharted surface.
With this India has become the fourth country- after the US, China and Russia – to have successfully landed on the moon’s surface, it has earned a place in record books as the first to touchdown on the south side of Earth’s only natural satellite.
The ambitious mission was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14.
A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle was used for the launch of the spacecraft that was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then it was through a series of orbital manoeuvres been lowered closer to the moon’s surface.
Ever since the July 14 launch, ISRO had been maintaining that the health of the spacecraft remained “normal”.
