The name of Lord Venkateswara, the presiding deity of the 2,000-year-old hill shrine at Tirumala, is all set to "Reach the Moon" onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of the US space agency NASA, scheduled for launch later this year, according to a devotee.
Responding to an invitation of NASA to the public to join the lunar exploration journey with an opportunity to send their names to the Moon onboard the LRO, the devotee in this temple town on Friday registered the name of Lord Venkateswara on the project website.
According to the NASA website, the names being submitted since May 1 under the project would be placed on a microchip that would be installed on the LRO spacecraft and travel to the Moon.
The devotee said he had logged on to the address 'http://iro.jhuapi.edu/NametoMoon/undex.php' and sent the name of "Lord Venkateswara, Tirupati" and received an automatic online certification of participation in the "Send your name to the Moon" project of NASA.
The certificate number of Lord Venkateswara was 1787055 dated July 24, 2008, he said.
According to the IRO website, the deadline for submission of names is July 31.