A message from NASA: Bill Nelson congratulates ISRO for successful landing of Chandrayaan-3

The 14th Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Bill Nelson on Wednesday congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on being able to make a soft landing on the moon with its lunar satellite, Chandrayaan-3.

Taking it to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Nelson said that NASA is glad to be a partner on this mission.

"Congratulations @isro on your successful Chandrayaan-3 lunar South Pole landing! And congratulations to #India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon. We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!" he posted.



As for NASA, being the leading space agency in the world, a few missions have been on its list to reach to the moon.

NASA's Artemis 3 mission is set to return humans to the Moon in 2025.

Under the Artemis program, NASA is planning a series of missions of increasing complexity to return to the Moon and build up a sustained presence so it can develop and test technologies for an eventual journey to Mars.

Artemis 1 flew an uncrewed spacecraft around the Moon in 2022.

Artemis 2, planned for November 2024, will do the same with crew on board.

NASA sees the Moon as a pitstop for missions to Mars and has done a deal with Finnish mobile firm Nokia to set up a 4G network there.

However it has said the Artemis 3 mission may not land humans on the Moon. That will depend on whether certain key elements are finished in time.

(With inputs from AFP)