Addressing students at an event organised by the Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Foundation in Rameswaram to commemorate the 92nd birth anniversary of the late former President, he said, “About 5-6 people from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory came (to the Isro headquarters) and we explained to them about Chandrayaan-3 technology. That was before the soft landing took place (on August 23)… they just said, ‘We have no comments. Everything is going to be good’. They also said, ‘Look at the scientific instruments, they are so beautiful and very cheap. Very easy to build and they are high-technology. How did you build it? Why don’t you sell this to America?’
Talking to students, Somanath said, “Times have changed. We are capable of building the best of equipment, best of devices and best of rockets. That is why our PM Narendra Modi has opened the space sector. Our knowledge and intelligence level in the country is one of the best in the world. India will be a very powerful nation one day. We will be powerful in technology.”
Reiterating the moments on the day India landed on the lunar south pole, Somanath said, “PM Modi called me and thanked me when I told him that ‘India is on Moon, Sir’. He then asked me, ‘When are you next sending an Indian to the Moon?'”
“At the launch of Chandrayaan-10, one of you (referring to students in the audience) will design a rocket that will go to the Moon and one of you will be sitting inside that rocket and, most probably, it will be a girl child. A girl astronaut will go from India and land on the Moon… You don’t have to wait till 2047. It will be much before that,” he said.
Referring to his recent participation in a space conference, Somanath said everybody from Nasa and space agencies of Europe and China was congratulating him for the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. “Why are they doing it? Because they realise that India is going to be a powerful nation.”
Recalling Kalam’s stint in Isro, Somanath said, “I joined Isro in 1985 and I was fortunate to work with him, but for a short duration as he was leaving Isro to work for DRDO.”
ISRO plans 4-5 launches by January, monthly launches in the pipeline
After the failure of the GSLV launch, Somanath said “I was asked to explain the reason for the failure to Kalam, who was then the President of India. Being a rocket engineer himself, he asked me a lot of questions. But later he said, “keep trying and you will succeed’. And we did.”
