Chandrayaan-3 is triumph of Indian innovation: Former NASA official

Former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Official Mike Gold has said Chandrayaan-3's success is a triumph of Indian innovation, human capital and the capabilities that will take India even further.

"Congratulations to ISRO and all of the people of India. This is a victory not only for India but for the entire world as we go into this new era of lunar development and India is leading the way," Gold said on Chandrayaan-3's successful landing on the Moon.

"It is amazing to have the success that Chandrayaan-3 has had given the relatively little amount of resources that India has used, it is just a triumph of Indian innovation, human capital and the capabilities that will take India even further," the now Chief Growth Officer of Redwire Space said.

Red-wire Corporation is an American aerospace manufacturer and space infrastructure technology company.

Gold said the mission 'is just the first step on the amazing journey of discovery that India is on having signed the Artemis Accords. This is just the beginning of India's journey'.

He further said that he is excited about India's interface development with commercial space companies such as Redwire. "We are building parts of the lunar gateway, developing systems on the moon to develop landing pads," he said.

"This is just the beginning of a new era led by India. Fantastic to see the flag," Gold added.

Chandryaan-3 on Wednesday successfully performed a soft landing on the moon.

ISRO tweeted: 'Chandrayaan-3 Mission: 'India, I reached my destination and you too!' Chandrayaan-3 has successfully soft-landed on the moon! Congratulations, India!'

As the Vikram lander carrying the Pragyaan rover in its belly touched down on the lunar surface, it marked a giant leap in India's spacefaring journey providing a well-deserved finale to ISRO's long years of toil.

This makes India the fourth country -- after the United States, China, and Russia -- to have successfully landed on the moon's surface, it has earned a place in record books as the first to touchdown on the south side of Earth's only natural satellite.

Special screenings of the soft landing were organised across the country, including schools science centres, and public institutions. ISRO made the live action available on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV.

The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota on July 14.

Meanwhile, Mike Gold earlier said: "This (Chandrayaan-3) mission will gather invaluable data to help drive our understanding of the Moon, our ability to utilize resources and ultimately where we're going to establish settlements on the Moon. Whether the mission succeeds in landing or not, the mission itself, in my opinion, is an overall success..."

Mike Gold said the mission will 'move the collaboration forward to the Moon. Right now, a lot of our collaboration with NASA and ISRO is focused on Earth, which is terrific, such as projects such as NISAR, where with India, we're going to have radar systems that will be able to study the Earth. And create a lot of vital data to tackle climate change and issues related to our change in climate, which is going to be so important for India, for the US and for the entire world'.