Shortly after India on Wednesday became the fourth country to land on the Moon after the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar south pole, Pakistani politician Fawad Chaudhry, who had mocked India after Chandrayaan-2 failed to land successfully, described it as a “great moment” for the ISRO.
“What a great moment for #ISRO as #Chandrayaan3 lands on the Moon, I can see lots of young scientists celebrating this moment with Mr Somnat Chairman ISRO, only Younger generation with dreams can change the world … good luck,” Chaudhry wrote on X (formally Twitter).
Interestingly, Chaudhry has been congratulating India since Tuesday morning with his series of X posts.
Hours before Chandrayaan-3 makes its scheduled soft-landing on the Moon, he had congratulated India on this “great achievement”. This came a day after Chaudhry urged Pakistan's media to show a live broadcast of what he said was a "historic moment for humankind".
“All eyes on #Chandrayaan3 Moon landing 5:40 PM, great day for Indian Science Community and Space Scientists, Congratulations to people of India on this great achievement,” he wrote.
“Pak media should show #Chandrayaan moon landing live tomorrow at 6:15 PM…historic moment for Human kind specially for the people, scientists and Space community of India…. Many Congratulations,” he wrote on Tuesday.
In 2019, when the lander of Chandrayaan-2 suffered a technical glitch and was unable to land on the Moon, Chaudhry took a brutal dig at the lunar mission and he was slammed by Indians on social media.
{{/usCountry}}In 2019, when the lander of Chandrayaan-2 suffered a technical glitch and was unable to land on the Moon, Chaudhry took a brutal dig at the lunar mission and he was slammed by Indians on social media.
{{/usCountry}}In a tweet, the Pakistani leader had criticised India for "spending ₹900 crore" on the Moon mission and claimed it was "unwise" to venture into "unknown territory".
India over the Moon
This was India's second attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon and comes less than a week after Russia's Luna-25 mission failed. People across the country were glued to television screens and said prayers as the spacecraft approached the surface.
Nearly 7 million watched the YouTube live stream.
Chandrayaan means "moon vehicle" in Hindi and Sanskrit. 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.