US Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday congratulated India for Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing on the southern polar region of the moon and called it an “incredible feat for all scientists, engineers involved”.
“Congratulations to India for the historic landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the southern polar region of the moon. It’s an incredible feat for all the scientists and engineers involved. We are proud to partner with you on this mission and space exploration more broadly,” Harris tweeted on Thursday.
Chandrayaan-3 on Wednesday successfully performed a soft landing on the Moon.
ISRO tweeted: “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: ‘India, I reached my destination and you too!’ Chandrayaan-3 has successfully soft-landed on the moon! Congratulations, India!”
US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti congratulated India, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and their entire team as Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the Moon.
Taking to his social media ‘X’, Eric Garcetti tweeted, “That’s how you stick a landing! Congratulations to India, @ISRO and the entire team on the successful landing of #Chandrayaan3! I can see exciting opportunities ahead for #USIndiaSpace collaboration.”
Garcetti also shared his delight and said that he can see exciting opportunities ahead for India-US Space collaboration.
India’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) Ruchira Kamboj said Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing on the Moon is a historic moment for humanity as “we venture into uncharted territory near the moon’s South Pole”.
“India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed its Vikram lander module near the South Pole of the Moon. And what is significant about this is that India has reached the South Pole of the Moon which no country in the world could reach to date with the dedication and talent of its scientists,” the permanent representative to the UN said during a press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York.
As the Vikram lander carrying the Pragyaan rover in its belly touched down on the lunar surface, it marked a giant leap in India’s spacefaring journey providing a well-deserved finale to ISRO’s long years of toil.
This makes India 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.
Special screenings of the soft landing were organized across the country, including schools science centres, and public institutions. ISRO made the live action available on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV.
The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14.