'This is new India; its arms extend from Mars to Moon': Rajnath Singh

NEW DELHI: After Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the Moon's surface, making India the first to land near the Moon's South Pole, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the ISRO team. "On the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, I would like to congratulate team ISRO and every Indian. Many congratulations for making the country ‘Chandramauli’. This is new India whose arms extend from Mars to the Moon," Singh said while talking to ANI.

He further said that ISRO scientists have told the world that ‘Chanda Mama’ is no longer far away from us. “India has added a golden chapter in the history of space exploration with the landing of Vikram Lander on the south pole of the Moon,” he added. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission landed successfully after a 40-day journey starting from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. 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. The Chandrayaan-3 mission is the follow-up to the Chandrayaan-2 mission of 2019 when the Vikram lander crashed into the lunar surface. The Pragyan rover is expected to come out in the coming hours. Union Minister Meenakashi Lekhi also lauded the success and said that this is one such moment that cannot be expressed in words.

"All I can say is congratulations India, congratulations to the scientific community of the world and let's all take pride in all our scientists and endeavours which this country has been through. In spite of difficulties, in spite of challenges, we did what we did. And India is very proud of our scientific community... The enthusiasm that the prime minister expressed is within the heart of every Indian... This is one such moment which cannot be expressed in words...,” she said while talking to ANI.

Lekhi further said that the day is not for doing ‘politics’. “Going where no man has gone before, no mission has gone before, it is a moment of pride and satisfaction... To all those who fighting for credit, we should be proud of the capabilities of our scientists. They tried to malign the space mission. Today is not the day of politics...," the union minister added.