(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – President Ranil Wickremesinghe has extended his heartiest congratulations to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the successful lunar landing of Chandrayaan-3.
“Sri Lanka is proud of this historic and momentous achievement”, Wickremesinghe said, adding that PM Modi’s generous gesture of dedicating this accomplishment to all of mankind will inspire generations to pursue the advancement of scientific and technological progress.
Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 – which means “moon vehicle” in Hindi and Sanskrit – made history on Wednesday (Aug. 23) as it successfully landed on the moon, in a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and establishing India’s standing as a moon power.
India’s mission became the first the land on the South Pole region of the moon.
This was India’s second attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon and came less than a week after Russia’s Luna-25 mission failed. In 2019, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander crashed.
The Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain functional for two weeks, running a series of experiments including a spectrometer analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface.
Rough terrain makes a South Pole landing difficult, and a first landing is historic. The region’s ice could supply fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions.
