Chandrayaan-3: In Bengaluru, PM Modi lauds ISRO scientists for taking ‘Make in India’ to Moon

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday heaped praises on the ISRO on the successful Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission and said people from across the globe who believe in science and the future are filled with enthusiasm over India’s achievement. He also hailed them for taking ‘Make in India’ to the Moon.

Modi, who flew down to Bengaluru directly from Greece, said he could not stop himself from reaching the city first on his return to pay tribute to the ISRO scientists.

Modi was accorded a warm reception as he arrived at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru. He met the team of scientists with the Indian Space Research Organisation, who were involved in the country’s third lunar mission — Chandrayaan-3.

India entered record books as the first country to successfully place a lander on the unexplored lunar South Pole on Wednesday evening. Modi followed the final moments of the touchdown of the lunar lander, ‘Vikram’, virtually from South Africa where he was attending the 15th BRICS Summit.

ISRO chairman S Somanath received Modi, who patted his back and hugged him for the successful culmination of the daunting lunar landing mission. He also posed for a group photo with the team of scientists behind the project.

S Somanath briefed Modi on the ISRO’s 40-day journey to the lunar South Pole and the efforts that went into the project.

Addressing the scientists, Modi announced that the touchdown point of Chandrayaan-3 will be called ‘Shiv Shakti’ and the place where Chandrayaan-2 left its footprint on the lunar surface in 2019 will be known as ‘Tiranga Point’.

He also announced that India will celebrate August 23 as ‘National Space Day’ to mark the successful touchdown of the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s lander.

Prior to meeting the ISRO scientists, PM raised the slogan ‘Jai Vigyan Jai Anusandhan’ and greeted people lining the streets outside HAL airport after his arrival in Bengaluru.

“Today, I am feeling a different level of happiness…such occasions are very rare…this time, I was so restless…I was in South Africa but my mind was with you,” Modi said the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network Mission Control Complex.

The prime minister said he had requested Karnataka governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy CM DK Shivakumarnot to come to the airport to receive him as he did not want them to take the trouble of coming early in the morning as he was not sure of his arrival time after a long flight.

Ahead of Modi’s Bengaluru visit to meet ISRO scientists, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday alleged that he purportedly barred Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar from receiving him at the HAL Airport.