US hails Chandrayan-3 landing as historic

Washington, Aug 24

The United States, which had helped in India's Chandrayan-3 mission and closely tracked its progress, joined the world in hailing the historic soft-landing of the Indian spacecraft on the moon’s South Pole surface on Wednesday.

“Congratulations to @ISRO and the people of India for Chandrayaan-3’s historic landing on the South Pole of the moon,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan wrote in a post on X (previously Twitter).

“We look forward to deepening our partnership with India on space exploration in the years ahead.”

The United States provided key help to the mission, as acknowledged by S. Somanath, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), at a press conference. He also acknowledged help from Australia and the United Kingdom.

“Congratulations @isro on your successful Chandrayaan-3 lunar South Pole landing!” Bill Nelson, the Administrator of NASA, wrote on X.

“And congratulations #India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon. We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!”

The other three countries are the United States, the erstwhile USSR (Russia tried and failed last week), and China.

Chandrayan 3 is the first spacecraft to land in the South Pole region of the moon.