On Saturday (August 26), Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the touchdown point of the Chandrayaan-3 moon lander will be renamed as ‘Shiv Shakti.’ He made the announcement at the ISRO Telemetry Tracking & Command Network Mission Control Complex in Bengaluru.
While speaking about the matter, he said, “You know that there is a tradition to name the touchdown points in the scientific community. India has made the decision to rename the point on the moon where our Chandrayaan-3 landed.”
“The point where the moon lander of Chandrayaan 3 landed will henceforth be known as ‘Shiv Shakti’,” Pm Modi informed. His announcement was greeted with applause by the ISRO scientists.
#WATCH | The spot where Chandrayaan-3’s moon lander landed, that point will be known as ‘Shivshakti’, announces Prime Minister Narendra Modi at ISRO Telemetry Tracking & Command Network Mission Control Complex in Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/1zCeP9du8I
— ANI (@ANI) August 26, 2023
At the same time, the crash landing site of Chandryaan-2’s moon lander has been renamed as ‘Tiranga point.’
BREAKING: We didn’t name the Chandrayaan-2 landing site because of what happened in 2019, but have now decided to declare it. That point is now called Tiranga Point, says PM Modi.
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) August 26, 2023
After a 40-day journey into space, the Chandrayaan-3 lander, ‘Vikram’, touched down on the lunar South Pole on Wednesday (August 23) evening, making India the first country to achieve this feat.
India also became only the fourth nation after the US, Russia and China to successfully conduct a lunar landing mission. After the landing of the Vikram lander, the Pragyan rover rolled out of it, which will visit the surrounding areas to study.
Chandrayaan-3 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14 using a GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle. The spacecraft was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then, it has gone through a series of orbital manoeuvres before landing on the moon’s surface.
