Biden congratulates PM Modi, ISRO for Chandrayaan 3, Aditya L1 missions

New Delhi: US President Joe Biden on Friday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the scientists and engineers of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Chandrayaan 3 and solar mission Aditya L1.
India achieved a historic feat by becoming the first country to touch down on the Moon’s South Pole on August 23. The Pragyan rover traversed over 100 metres on the lunar surface and completed all the assignments before being set into sleep mode.
The Pragyan rover is in sleep mode since the sunset on the moon and data from all payloads is being transmitted to the Earth through the ‘Vikram’ lander. According to ISRO, the battery of Chandrayaan 3 is completely charged and the solar panel will get light at the next sunrise on the moon expected on September 22. During their bilateral meeting, Biden and PM Modi welcomed the efforts towards establishing a Working Group for the commercial space collaboration under existing India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group.
“Determined to deepen our partnership in outer space exploration, ISRO and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have commenced discussions on modalities, capacity building, and training for mounting a joint effort to the International Space Station in 2024, and are continuing efforts to finalise a strategic framework for human space flight cooperation by the end of 2023”, the Indo-US joint statement released by White House stated.
“India and the United States also intend to increase coordination on planetary defence to protect planet Earth and space assets from the impact of asteroids and near-Earth objects, including U.S. support for India’s participation in asteroid detection and tracking via the Minor Planet Center”, the statement added.