The whole nation is celebrating the launch of the Indian Space Research Organization ‘s (ISRO) second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2. Where the nation takes a step closer to a better future, the organization upsets others by its success.
About the Mission
India had on Monday launched Chandrayaan-2 on-board its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with the aim of landing a rover in the unexplored lunar south pole.
The 3,850kg Chandrayaan-2, a three-module spacecraft comprising orbiter, lander, and rover, has been injected into the earth’s orbit. It will be subjected to a series of orbit maneuvers in the coming weeks to take it to the vicinity of moon, with the rover soft landing planned on September 7.
A day after, ISRO said that the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft is in “good health” and moving in the “right direction”.
Amidst all of this, NASA’s appreciation post creates a sense of controversy whether NASA actually appreciates ISRO for its achievement or tries to use sarcasm to hide its jealousy.
What happened?
NASA took to Twitter to congratulate ISRO for its achievement. The tweet said, “Congrats to @ISRO on the launch of Chandrayaan-2, a mission to study the Moon. We’re proud to support your mission comms using our Deep Space Network and look forward to what you learn about the lunar South pole where we will send astronauts on our #Artemis mission in a few years”
Congrats to @ISRO on the launch of Chandrayaan 2, a mission to study the Moon. We’re proud to support your mission comms using our Deep Space Network and look forward to what you learn about the lunar South pole where we will send astronauts on our #Artemis mission in a few years pic.twitter.com/dOcWBX3kOE
— NASA (@NASA) July 22, 2019
At this post, several questions were raised on the intentions of NASA behind such an appreciation.
But the Twitterati didn’t leave a chance to drop in some of their opinions:
1.
Is NASA flexing on ISRO or genuinely congratulating.
Anyways, thanks and best wishes for your upcoming manned moon mission. pic.twitter.com/nSJCaOGmTd— 👨💻 Ketan Ramteke 👨💻 (@theketan2) July 22, 2019
2.
Fact is NASA never wanted India to have such success.. otherwise would have supported India and Russia couple of years back.. #nasaisselfish@UditMathur@AbhiChaubey07 @NilabhMathur @ruturaj_sunar
— rohan mathur (@mathur_rohan) July 22, 2019
To our surprise, NASA replied to the criticisms and cleared the air about how it is really proud of ISRO’s success. The tweet said:
“We’re proud to support international exploration missions & see what they learn. The principle of global cooperation is one of our guiding philosophies. Such collaboration is essential to broadening human knowledge by answering profound questions about our place in the cosmos”
We’re proud to support international exploration missions & see what they learn. The principle of global cooperation is one of our guiding philosophies. Such collaboration is essential to broadening human knowledge by answering profound questions about our place in the cosmos✨
— NASA (@NASA) July 22, 2019
Well, it was much needed from NASA, because let’s be real ISRO certainly did a great job, making the entire nation proud.
Also Read: How Brands Celebrated Chandrayaan-2 Launch With Creative Social Media Posts
