Chandrayaan-3 Landing Site Officially Named “Statio Shiva Shakti”

New Delhi: Chandrayaan-3 mission, led by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) achieved a historic milestone with the successful soft landing of its Vikram lander on the Moon’s surface. The landing site has now been officially named “Statio Shiva Shakti” by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). This comes nearly seven months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi first announced the proposed name.

The IAU, headquartered in Paris, maintains the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, a comprehensive record of approved astronomical names. According to the Gazetteer, “Statio Shiva Shakti” is a compound word derived from Indian mythology, symbolizing the inherent duality of nature represented by the masculine (“Shiva”) and the feminine (“Shakti”). The name specifically marks the landing site of Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander.

In his August 26, 2023, address at ISRO’s Telemetry Tracking and Command Network Mission Control Complex in Bengaluru, Prime Minister Modi announced a series of historical designations. He declared August 23, the day of Chandrayaan-3’s successful lunar landing, as “National Space Day” in India. Additionally, the Prime Minister designated the landing site of Chandrayaan-2 mission as “Tiranga” (Hindi for tricolour flag), serving as an everlasting symbol of India’s unwavering spirit in the face of setbacks.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission marked a significant milestone for India’s spacefaring ambitions. It achieved the first-ever soft landing near the Moon’s South Pole, a previously unexplored region. This feat propelled India into the elite group of nations – alongside the US, Russia, and China – to have successfully landed a spacecraft on the lunar surface.