Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 26 announced to celebrate August 23, when India’s Chandrayaan-3 landed on the Moon, as National Space Day. He also announced that the spot where the lander landed on the Moon will be known as ‘Shivashakti’ and where Chandrayaan-2 touched down will be called as ‘Tiranga Point’.
The Prime Minister was addressing the scientists at the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network Mission Control Complex in Bengaluru, Karnataka. PM Modi said that experts suggest that in a few years, India’s space industry will become $16 billion from $8 billion.
PM Modi’s visit to ISRO in Bengaluru
- To congratulate ISRO team for the successful touchdown of Chandrayaan-3 lander on August 23, PM Modi visited to Bengaluru, immediately after returning from his two-nation visit to Greece and South Africa. He was accorded a warm reception as he arrived at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru on Saturday morning.
- Afterwards, he also met the team of scientists with the Indian Space Research Organisation, who were involved in the mission. PM Modi joined the ISRO team in witnessing the historic landing of Vikram lander on Moon virtually from South Africa. At that time he was attending the 15th BRICS Summit.
- The Prime Minister was received personally by ISRO Chairman S Somanath. The two greeeted each other with a warm hug, which was more of a celebration of the successful culmination of the daunting lunar landing mission. He also posed for a group photo with the team of scientists behind the project. Later, PM Modi received the briefing of ISRO’s 40-day journey to the lunar South Pole by S Somanath.
- He said that Chandrayaan-2 left its footprint on the lunar surface in 2019. He also gave credit to the women scientists of ISRO in the success of India’s mission to moon.