“An extraordinary achievement for country”: BJP chief after Chandrayaan-3's success

New Delhi [India], August 23 : Shortly after the Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the moon, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda said that the achievement is an “extraordinary” one for the country.
In a video message, Nadda hailed the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the country is creating a unique identity for itself in the space sector.
"I congratulate all scientists associated with this mission and the people of the county. Under PM Modi's leadership, India is creating a unique identity for itself in the space sector. This is proving the mantra of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' true. With this successful landing mission, India has become the first nation to reach the south pole of the Moon. This is an extraordinary achievement for the country...,” Nadda said.
The BJP chief also took a swipe at the previous UPA government led by Congress and said, “Out of 89 launch missions by ISRO since its establishment in 1969, 47 space missions have been under Modi government in the last 9 years. This is double the number of missions launched in the UPA regime..."
The unmanned Chandrayaan-3 touched down at 6:04 pm as mission control technicians cheered wildly and embraced their colleagues.
Its landing comes days after a Russian probe crashed in the same region and four years since the previous Indian attempt failed at the last moment.
Meanwhile, after scripting history by becoming the first country to successfully soft-land on the moon's south pole, the Indian Space Research Organisation sent out a message of congratulations to the nation.
"Chandrayaan-3 Mission: 'India, I reached my destination and you too!': Chandrayaan-3," posted ISRO on microblogging site X.
With this India has become the fourth country- after the US, China and Russia – to have successfully landed on the moon’s surface, it has earned a place in record books as the first to touchdown on the south side of Earth’s only natural satellite.
India's success in landing the spacecraft on the Moon's south pole comes days after a Russian probe Luna-25 crashed in the same region. Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft put down the Vikram lander on the lunar surface, descending and tilted to a horizontal position ahead of landing.
"India is on the moon!" Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is currently attending the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg said. He watched the live telecast and as soon as the touchdown happened he sported a big smile and waved the tricolour.
ISRO had been releasing a series of up-close images of the moon, assisting the lander module in determining its position (latitude and longitude) by matching them against an onboard moon reference map.
The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14.A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle was used for the launch of the spacecraft that was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then it was through a series of orbital manoeuvres been lowered closer to the moon’s surface.
Ever since the July 14 launch, ISRO had been maintaining that the health of the spacecraft remained “normal”.
On August 5, Chandrayaan-3 was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit with multiple key manoeuvres thereafter.