PM congratulates Isro team, names moon lander point as 'Shivashakti'

BENGALURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) team involved in the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission and on the occasion, named the moon’s south polar region as ‘Shivashakthi’ point where moon lander made its touchdown on
August 23.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a visit to South Africa and Greece when Chandrayaan-3 successfully made its touchdown on moon and on Saturday he landed in Bengaluru and met ISRO scientists and greeted them over their success. He termed the Chandrayaan-3 mission success as “India on the moon” and “We have a national pride (national flag) played on the moon.”

Modi was a touch emotional when he said “I want to salute you (ISRO)” and after a brief pause in his speech, resumed to state that “salute your bravery, efforts, dedication and perseverance.”

Modi also announced that August 23 the day on which Chandrayaan-3 mission achieved success will now be celebrated as “National Space Day” and said that “It is to mark the hoisting of the national flag on the moon.” The National Space Day on August 23 every year will inspire the countrymen to celebrate Science and Technology, innovation spirits as well.

Recalling the failure of Chandrayaan-02 mission four years back, Modi said the point at which Chandrayaan-2 mission left its footprint on moon will be called as “triranga’ (tricolour). A proposal to name the point was made to name the Chandrayaan-2 mission as “triranga” then itself but now “It has been decided to name the two points at the same time.”

Addressing the select audience at ISRO Telemetry Tracking Command Network (ISTRAC), Modi announcement to name the touchdown point as ‘Shivashakti’ point drew a round of applause from the audience and termed that ‘Shiva’ is a source of inspiration while ‘Shakti’ give energy to achieve it.

On ‘Shivashkati’ point, Modi said the naming of the point is to derive inspiration over the successful landing and the inspiration is to make use of science only for the people’s welfare. Over the naming of ‘triranga’ point on the moon, apart from being an inspiration, the Prime Minister said “It will teach us that no failure is permanent” and added that “With a firm mind, any success would be achieved.”

Lauding the efforts of the scientists for making Chandrayaan-3 mission possible, Modi said the Chandrayaan-3 mission “Is not only for India but help other countries to explore avenues in moon mission and help to meet the challenges on earth” and stated that “Looking at the images of moon is magnificent. It’s for the first time images of the moon are visible for mankind owing to the efforts of Bharat (Indian) scientists.”

Modi said new opportunities are opening up in the 21st century and experts are of the opinion that the Indian space sector is expected to cross 16 billion dollars from 8 billion dollars in the years to come and stated that “A lot of space sector reforms are going on in the country.”

Stating that India is one of the four nations to touch the moon, Modi said today’s India has come out of the third world nation tag and emerged as the fifth biggest economy of the world. “Today. India stands in the front row jumping to the third row and the jump in position is because of the efforts of institutions such as ISRO among others.” On today’s India, the Prime Minister said “In 21st century, India would be in a position to address major issues of the world.”

Earlier ISRO chairman Somanath welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Somanath received pat on his back by Modi over Chandrayaan-3 mission success.