New Delhi: With the successful landing of the third lunar mission Chandrayan 3 on the lunar surface on Wednesday, India has become the first country to land on the Moon's South Pole and also the fourth country to land on the Moon after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China.
Hailing the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3, former diplomat G Parthasarathy, in an interview with ETV Bharat, said it is a message to the world about the technological capabilities of India. “It is a remarkable feat and a contribution by India to humanity as a whole. It is the first time anybody has landed on the south pole of the moon and this has given India an opportunity to work for future missions and look beyond the moon", Parthasarathy added.
Professor Sanjay Chamoli, Department of Physics and Astrophysics, Delhi University said, "Today’s landing of Chandrayaan 3 Vikram Lander on the moon surface is not just a success story for ISRO but the whole world is watching us achieving such success, especially the countries like the US and Russia. Major powers like Russia and the US have this kind of capability and they have achieved such feat quite a number of times. But it is for the first time in India that the Lander has landed on the moon's surface in a perfectly planned manner. It is a huge success story for the rest of the world as well”.
He said that just as India has its Chandrayaan 3 mission, countries like Korea, and Japan have had similar missions but they could not succeed because of technical reasons. “Therefore, the successful landing of Chandrayaan 3 is going to provide a great help to other nations like Japan, Korea, and, UAE to plan their space mission with the help of India," the professor added.
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Meanwhile, Russian ambassador to India Denis Alipov hailed India’s space glory and said, “A historic triumph unfolds as Chandrayaan 3 lands flawlessly on the Moon’s South Pole. Humanity’s quest for space exploration takes a monumental leap forward. Kudos to the brilliant minds behind the remarkable feat”.
On a similar note envoys and embassies of Israel, France, Russia, Sweden, Japan, Turkey, Australia and Germany in New Delhi extended congratulations to India on the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3. Post the lunar success, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to ISRO chairman S Somanath from South Africa and sent him a congratulatory message. Taking to X (previously Twitter) the prime minister said, “ Chandrayaan-3's triumph mirrors the aspirations and capabilities of 140 crore Indians. To new horizons and beyond! Proud moment for India”.
India’s third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14, 2023 from Satish Dhawan Space Center in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It’s a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 India’s first attempt to land on the moon, which resulted in failure on September 6, 2019 when contact was lost with the spacecraft when it was 2.1 km above the lunar surface.
