Nothing Wrong..: ISRO Chief over naming of Chandrayaan-3 landing site ’Shivashakti’

Mangalore Today News Network

Thiruvananthapuram, August 27, 2023: Days after India created history with the soft landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath on Sunday offered prayers at the Pournamikavu-Bhadrakali Temple in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram.

The ISRO Chief reached Thiruvananthapuram after the successful launch of the Lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3 on the surface of the moon on August 23.

Addressing the media after paying his obeisance at the temple, the eminent scientist said that science and belief are two different entities and that there is no need to mix the two.

Asked About his visit to the temple, Somanath said, “I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner space. So it’s a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and spirituality. I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. I try to find the meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. It’s part of the culture that we are all built to explore and find out the inner self as well as the outer self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples," he said.

He also asserted that there was no controversy regarding the naming of the Chandrayaan 2 landing site on the moon as ‘ShivSakthi’ and added that the nation has the right to name the place.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi narrated the meaning of it (ShivShakti) in a manner that suits all of us. I think there is nothing wrong with that. And also he gave the next name to Tiranga and both are Indian-sounding names. See, we must have a significance of doing what we are doing. And he has a prerogative of naming it being the Prime Minister of the country," he said.

The ISRO Chairman said that India was the first country to land in the south pole of the moon and added that the surface of the moon in the south pole was very tricky with mounts and valleys and even a minor calculation error would lead to the lander failing in the mission.