Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, August 26, announced that to mark the success of Chandrayaan 3’s Moon landing, August 23 will be celebrated as National Space Day. Modi’s announcement came as he was addressing the Indian Space Research Organisation scientists at the ISRO command centre in Bengaluru.
Modi visited the space agency’s Telemetry Tracking and Command Network Mission Control Complex to congratulate the Chandrayaan 3 team on the mission’s success. During his visit, the PM also announced that the touchdown point of Chandrayaan 3 on the Moon’s surface will be called ‘Shiv Shakti’, adding that the point where Chandrayaan 2 crash-landed on the Moon in 2019 will be called ‘Tiranga’. “Women scientists have played a key role in Chandrayaan 3 mission..the ‘Shiv Shakti’ point will inspire the upcoming generations to use science for the welfare of people…” he said. He also lauded the ISRO scientists for taking the ‘Make in India’ initiative to the moon.