The Rajya Sabha, on Wednesday, unanimously passed a resolution applauding the achievements of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. This resolution was adopted following a comprehensive discussion titled ‘India’s Remarkable Space Odyssey Marked by the Successful Soft Landing of Chandrayaan-3.’
During the commencement of the discussion, the Vice-President of India emphasized that Chandrayaan-3’s triumph has firmly established India as the inaugural nation to accomplish a soft lunar landing on the moon’s South Pole. This historic achievement has also accorded India membership in the Artemis Accords, a multilateral initiative led by the United States with the aim of placing humans on the moon by 2025.
The Vice-President traced India’s impressive space journey spanning over six decades, underscored the transition from reliance on foreign launch vehicles to achieving complete self-sufficiency with indigenous launch capabilities. Furthermore, India’s capacity to launch its satellites has been complemented by its services for other nations, with a remarkable tally of 424 foreign satellites launched to date.
Celebrating India’s space achievements extending beyond lunar exploration, the Vice-President reminisced about India’s successful Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) in 2014. He emphasized the recent launch of the Aditya-L1 mission and the forthcoming Shukrayaan-1 mission to explore Venus, highlighting India’s unwavering commitment to planetary exploration and deep space missions as an extension of its efforts to harness space for developmental purposes.
Recognizing the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) cost-effective approach, which stands in contrast to major space agencies like NASA and ESA, the Chairman of the Upper House emphasized that this cost-effectiveness stems from India’s dedicated focus on indigenization and a reduced reliance on imports. He hailed the Indian Space Policy of 2023 as a significant stride toward a more innovative and economically robust future in space exploration, underscoring the pivotal role of private enterprises entering the sphere of space exploration in advancing India’s ambitions.
The Vice-President highlighted that India’s achievements in the space sector have elevated the nation to a prominent global position and imbued the country with a profound sense of “national pride.” He emphasized that India’s journey in space exploration, spanning from the Chandrayaan missions to Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) and Aditya-L1’s solar exploration, serves as a testament to the limitless possibilities that lie beyond the sky.
Participating in the discussion, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh praised Vikram Sarabhai’s establishment of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), with a primary focus on the developmental aspects of space utilization, such as weather forecasting, communication, and rural development.
Union Minister of Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh, celebrated the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s success as a tribute to science and scientists, highlighting the substantial increase in the budgetary allocation for the Department of Space over the last nine years, which has surged by 142 percent.
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