By IANS,
New Delhi : Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, under whose premiership India’s moon mission was conceived, Wednesday congratulated the scientists for the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and termed it a “stupendous achievement” by the country.
“I am especially pleased that this project, which was planned by the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government, has been brought to a successful fruition,” said the veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.
“I had the honour of announcing it in my Independence Day address to the nation in 2003,” a statement issued here said.
Vaypayee, who has not been keeping well for sometime, offered hearty congratulations to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief G. Madhavan Nair and his team and said that they had been working relentlessly.
“They have worked relentlessly and with commendable fortitude to place an Indian spacecraft, carrying the tricolour, on the trajectory to the moon,” he said.
The senior BJP leader, who has been keeping out of the limelight, said the mission to the moon is a “stupendous achievement by India in the frontier area of space research”.
“What is especially creditable is that our achievement is the fruit of self-reliant efforts,” he added.
He hoped that the scientific knowledge that Chandrayaan-1 garners would serve as a “beacon of inspiration to the younger generation and as a stepping-stone to other great feats by India in science and technology”.