India will observe August 23 as ‘National Space Day’ to commemorate the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission, a government notification has said. The notification, issued by the Department of Space on October 13, noted that the day marks an important milestone in the country’s advancements in space missions.
“With the success of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission on August 23, 2023 with the landing of the Vikram lander and deployment of the Pragyaan Rover on the lunar surface, India joins an elite group of Space faring nations becoming the fourth country to land on the moon and the first nation to land near to South pole of the moon,” it said, adding that the outcome of the mission will benefit mankind in the years to come.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) headquarters in Bengaluru on August 26, had made the announcement to observe August 23 as National Space Day.
“To encourage our younger generation to get involved in the field of science and technology and space, we have decided that August 23, the day when our Chandrayaan-3 lander touched the moon, will be celebrated as National Space Day,” Modi had said.
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said on Saturday that the ‘sky is not the limit’ for India’s Space journey after the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission and the “unlocking of space sector by Prime Minister Modi”.
Delivering a keynote address on Chandrayaan-3 at the Central University of Jammu, Singh said India’s quantum leap in space research, with the country’s space economy standing at $8 billion, has been only possible due to the “courageous” decision taken by the prime minister to unlock the space sector from the shackles of the past.
“India today is at par with countries, such as the United States which commenced their space journey decades before us,” he said. The minister added that the space sector has been opened for public private participation with a swift increase in number of Space StartUps.
