Preparation Now Underway For Missions To Sun, Venus: Union Minister Anurag Thakur

New Delhi [India]: Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the successful Chandrayaan-3 moon mission and said now preparations are underway to go to the Sun and Venus.

“Chandrayaan-3 success is celebrated across the country and the world. This shows the capability of our country and our youth. This is the identity of the new India. This is just a beginning step. Our scientists and Youths contributions are behind it,” Thakur said in a press conference.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation’s command centre in Bengaluru, who were involved in the Chandrayaan-3 mission and lauded them for their efforts.

“The way PM was welcomed after his BRICS summit and the way he motivated our scientists, I can say it was first Mangalyaan, then Chandrayaan, now preparations are underway to go to Sun and Venus also,” Thakur said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced that August 23 will be celebrated as National Space Day to mark Chandrayaan-3’s landing on the Moon.

Shifting focus to its next space odyssey after successfully placing a lander on the moon’s uncharted South Pole, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday said the country’s maiden solar mission — Aditya-L1 — will “possibly” be launched on September 2.

Aditya-L1 would be the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun.

Speaking to media barely minutes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to scientists at the ISRO’s Bengaluru headquarters, Nilesh M Desai, a top space scientist at the agency and the director of Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, said, “We had planned the ‘Aditya-L1’ mission to study the sun.

The mission is ready for launch. There is a possibility that the spacecraft will be launched on September 2.”

Earlier, speaking to media, ISRO chairman S Somanth said the country’s maiden mission to study the sun will be ready for launch in the first week of September.