New Delhi: The Department of Space (DOS) on Friday issued a notification stating that the Centre has declared August 23 of every year as ‘National Space Day’ to commemorate the historic moment of Chandrayaan-3 making a soft landing on the moon.
India has become the fourth nation in the world to land a spacecraft on the moon and the first to land near the south pole of the lunar surface.
The notification said that August 23 marked an important milestone in the country’s advancements in Space Missions, which inspired younger generations towards enhanced interest in pursuing STEM and provided a major impetus to the Space sector.
The outcome of the historic moon mission will benefit mankind in the years to come, it added.
During his visit to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) headquarters in Bengaluru on August 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made an announcement to observe August 23 as National Space Day.
“To encourage our younger generation to get involved in the field of science and technology and space, we have decided that August 23, the day when our Chandrayaan-3 lander touched the moon, will be celebrated as National Space Day,” Modi had said.
With inputs from PTI