PM Modi praised our work, reviewed a long-term space vision for 2047: S. Somanath

IANS INDIA

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S. Somanath while addressing an event in Bengaluru said that Prime Minister Modi watched the live transmission of India's moon landing during the BRICS summit and later visited to celebrate the success. He declared August 23rd as National Space Day, naming the Chandrayaan-3 landing site as Shiva Shakti Point and Chandrayaan-2's site as Tiranga Point. During a visit to Kerala, he toured the rocket center, meeting Gaganyaan astronauts and interacting with Vyomitra, a language-capable robot. He praised the engineers' work and reviewed a long-term space vision for 2047, announcing plans for Gaganyaan, a space station, and future moon missions. He also personally inquired about the author's health, offering support during chemotherapy. Modi's administration has bolstered India's space ecosystem through policies like the National Space Policy, FDI in space, and free geospatial data access, fostering private sector growth.  #isro #nasa #space #drdo #india #chandrayaan #isromissions #science #astronomy #SSomnath

Transcript

00:00I remember our Honorable Prime Minister Modi ji was there watching live transmission and he was

00:06waving the flag that we could see sitting at the BRICS meeting. He took a small break and I came

00:13to watch this live transmission just 20 minutes before that. And immediately after transmission

00:19I had the fortune to announce and inform him that we have landed on the moon. So he came

00:25just straight from BRICS summit. After two days he came and met us there. So we arranged an

00:32exhibition for him outside with the model of the Chandrayantri etc. And he came and explained all

00:37that details to him. Then he came inside addressed all of us and made the great declaration of 23rd

00:46of August where the Chandrayantri landed on the moon as the National Space Day and also announced

00:52the place it landed as the Shiva Shakti point and Chandrayantri landing site as the Thiranga point.

00:59So these announcements he did. So we were all very thrilled to see him. This visit to Vikrasarabai

01:05Space Center where we had an exhibition of Gaganyaan. We arranged for him because he

01:11wanted to review the progress of the Gaganyaan in a very focused manner. So when he was visiting

01:18Kerala then we requested him to come over to the rocket center where also we had the astronauts.

01:25The Gaganyaan were given their wings by him in a function. So they were also announced. The four

01:30of them were announced. So in that we had almost a 20 minutes exhibition was arranged. But he took

01:36almost 45 minutes to cover that exhibition because of his interest. We showed him a lot of

01:42exhibits including the LVM 300 development the crew module that was going you know taking shape.

01:49He watched with so much of interest looking inside the design of it. He went and looked at the

01:54Vyomitra. The Vyomitra was a robot that we are putting into the first Gaganyaan crew mission.

02:00This Vyomitra has a language capability. He can understand what you speak and do actions. Move

02:07some knobs. Increase volume. Switch on lights. Do some functions and the facial gestures and

02:14replies in whatever language that you speak it will speak back to you in the appropriate reply.

02:20So I remember Prime Minister was so curious about it. He came and sat stood near that thing and we

02:27had certain commands written serial number one and everything was in Hindi. So he he was not going

02:33one by one but he randomly picked one and they started asking the Vyomitra. But fortunately the

02:40the accent we taught the Vyomitra's one but Prime Minister's accent is slightly different.

02:44And he was not exactly speaking that what was written slightly different.

02:49Still Vyomitra understood all of this and replied him correctly and did all that.

02:52And then he he took some third fourth. Then he went to first. Then we went to 10th. But in the

02:57process he covered all of them. And at the end he congratulated and said it is a beautiful good

03:04work. And all our engineers are thrilled to see him standing by it and then doing this. Then we

03:10went to the Gaganyaan crew module. Also went to the Pushpak the reusable rocket. We were going to

03:17land and do that. He went around it and saw that. So many many exhibits were there. He was so curious

03:23to understand. Discuss with me. After the Chandrayanthi landing we were asked to prepare a long

03:29time road map. A vision for space 2047 in the Amrutkal. So we prepared it and went to him.

03:35He came for a review along with other senior officials of the Government of India. So I made

03:40a presentation to him. After that he was very happy to announce to the public about the plan

03:47to continue Gaganyaan and about our plan to build the space station Pardiyanthirishi station and our

03:52vision to put our man on the moon. All that he announced later. But the most touching aspect was

03:58not that. After the meeting was over I was asked to come to his room. Because that time I was

04:04suffering from certain ailments. And he wanted to talk to me personally. OK. So we were only alone

04:13in the hall in his room. So he asked me how is it. How did you detect. What is the type of

04:19treatment going on. And he showed himself very anxious about it. I could understand he was

04:25meant to know about this. But I I showed a courageous face in front of him. Of course.

04:31I. He told me that you are a spiritual person and you won't be parted by such events in life.

04:38I said yes that I won't be worried about it. It's something that I need to handle. And he told me

04:44that you you can you will be definitely able to handle it. So that was one positive thing. He also

04:49advised me that if you when you go through such chemotherapies your hair loss may occur. So you

04:55should not get worried. I said that's our nowadays technologies that said it won't happen that fast

05:01that that used to happen. Luckily that same thing happened to me. His role as strengthening the space

05:07ecosystem in India is through various policy interventions as a prime minister. He is the

05:12creator of the policy implementer of the policy through the governmental system. So you recently

05:18you heard many initiatives after the space of reforms. We were working on a space policy.

05:24National space policy has been announced in which the roles and responsibility of Department of

05:29Space is through NSIL in space has been very clearly delineated. So this makes the first step which

05:37makes that private space ecosystem can come in in all these areas. So first step second step is we created a new

05:44policy called for foreign direct investment policy has also been announced in which in space sector in all areas

05:51private investments or foreign investments are allowed with certain controls and regulations which was not possible earlier.

05:59Third is done by DST Department of Science and Technology on geospatial policy. That means all the geospatial data

06:05satellite data is also now made available free of cost up to five meters solution to everybody. So to create a secondary

06:12effects on it. So these are three important initiatives in terms of policy initiatives. The government has taken

06:17pilot by honorable prime minister.

Category

Transcript

Recommended