ISRO chief S Somanath on Saturday exuded confidence in India’s capability in the space sector and said that the country is able to launch more interplenetary missions and the aim of the space agency is the overall progress of the nation.
He hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “long-term” vision for the country’s space sector and said that ISRO is ready to implement it.
The ISRO chief reached the Kerala capital for the first time after the historic success of Chandrayaan 3.
"As far as we are concerned, not just the soft landing, but the entire aspects of the Chandrayaan-3 were 100 per cent successful. The entire country is proud of it and extending support to us," he said.
Expressing his ecstasy over the ISRO’s achievement, he requested the people to continue their support in future endeavours.
"We are capable to travel more to moon, mars or venus...But, we have to enhance our confidence for that...besides that there should be more investment as well," he said.
“Our space sector should be expanded further contributing to the overall progress of the country and that is the objective of ISRO,” Somanath added.
India's solar mission
When asked about the first space-based Indian observatory to study the sun, Aditya-L1, the ISRO chief said that the satellite is ready and has reached Sriharikota.
He said that the launch of Aditya-L1 is expected in the first week of September and its final date would be announced soon.
"After the launch, it will take 125 days from the earth to reach Lagrange point 1 (L1). We have to wait till then," Somanath said.
He elaborated further on the lunar mission and said that both the rover and the lander of the Chandrayaan-3 have taken pictures and the ISRO team is waiting for more quality images in the coming days.
He informed that the ISRO team was concentrating more on scientific studies and research about moon as of now.
India on August 23 scripted history as ISRO’s third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) touched down on the surface of the Moon.
India became the fourth country to achieve such a feat and first to reach the uncharted south pole of earth's only natural satellite.
PM interacts with ISRO scientists
PM Modi on Saturday arrived in India back from his two-nation visit. He landed in Bengaluru and headed straight to ISRO to meet the ISRO scientists.
He congratulated them for the huge success while also patting the back of Somanath. The Prime Minister addressed the scientists whom he saluted while also getting emotional about the same.
In a slew of announcements which brought a loud cheer from the scientists, he said that the spot where Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the Moon will be named as ‘Shivashakti Point’ and where Chandrayaan-2 crash-on the Moon's surface in 2019 will be known as ‘Tiranga Point’.
Also, August 23, the day the Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down on the lunar surface, would be celebrated as National Space Day', PM Modi said.
(With PTI inputs)
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