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Every Indian should be proud of Chandrayaan, says Kalam

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

BANGALORE: Byalalu village near Bangalore had a high profile visitor on Saturday. The former President, A.P. J. Abdul Kalam, visited the Indian Deep Space Network and the giant antenna here and expressed his desire to see an Indian scientist land on the moon by 2021. “I would be 90 years old then,” he told a gathering of senior scientists.

G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) presented Mr. Kalam with a picture of the Earth taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera on board Chandrayaan-1 from an altitude of 70,000 km.

Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters after launching an emergency response service in the city, Mr. Kalam said he believed that every Indian should be proud of the Chandrayaan, the country’s first moon mission programme taken up by ISRO.

The images captured by the spacecraft were of high resolution and quality and therefore “an indication of what it holds for the future,” he added. On November 8, when Chandrayaan leaves the Earth’s gravity and enters the moon’s orbit, will be the next milestone for the mission, Mr. Kalam said.