In its latest feat after the successful launch and landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, India clearly created its image on the global map, giving a testament to the country's progress in the fields of space and science. With the world recognising the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) achievements, NASA also offered India to sell its space technology to the US.
In a recent event commemorating the 92nd birth anniversary of the late former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in Rameshwaram, ISRO chairman S Somanath shared inspiring stories about India's advancement in space technology, including the development of the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Recalling the time leading up to the launch of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, Somanath said that a delegate of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) came to the ISRO headquarters in August 2023. Having gone through all the technology used in the soft-landing mission, the scientists were quite impressed with the advanced yet cost-effective scientific instruments used in the mission and suggested India share their face technology with the US.
“About 5–6 people from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory came, and we explained to them about Chandrayaan-3 technology. That was before the soft landing took place on August 23. They just said, 'We have no comments. Everything is going to be good. They also said, 'Look at the scientific instruments; they are so beautiful and very cheap. They are very easy to build, and they are advanced. How did you build it? Why don’t you sell this to America?”, said the ISRO chief.
ISRO chief encourages students toward space technology
Encouraging students to contribute more toward India's space technology, S Somanath said that the times have changed and India is now capable of building the best of equipment, the best of devices, and the best of rockets.
Speaking along the lines of Dr APJ Kalam, he appealed to the young audience to follow the former president's ideology of dreaming and believing that they might go to the moon one day.
“At the launch of Chandrayaan-10, one of you might design a rocket, and another one of you will be sitting inside that rocket. Most probably, it will be a girl child. A girl child will go from India and land on the moon,” he said.
The ISRO chief also recalled the time when he received a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi after Chandrayaan-3 made a successful soft landing on the lunar surface. As PM Modi congratulated and thanked him upon hearing “India is on the Moon, sir”, the ISRO chief noted how he asked about when an Indian would go to the moon.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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