Chandrayaan 3: How Chandrayaan got the name of India's Mission Moon from Somayan? Know its connection with Atal Bihari Vajpayee

ISRO Moon Mission: India's first moon mission was approved in the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, then its name was kept by the scientists thinking something else.

India's First Moon Mission: Today i.e. Wednesday (August 23) is a historic day for the ambitious third Moon mission of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Chandrayaan-3 is to land on the moon on Wednesday evening at 6:40 pm. According to ISRO, the mission will be completed on time. India has sent two more missions to the Moon before Chandrayaan-3. There is an interesting anecdote about the beginning of India's first Moon mission. 

Change in name of lunar mission 

Initially, India's lunar mission was named 'Somayan'. Because this name was the first choice of scientists. Scientists named the mission Somayan after taking inspiration from a Sanskrit verse. However, later the name of the mission was changed.

Regarding the change in the name of the lunar mission, the Deccan Chronicle wrote to the then chief of ISRO, Dr. K.K. Kasturirangan has been told that Atal Bihari Vajpayee had changed the name of the mission. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee changed the name of this mission from 'Somyaan' to 'Chandrayaan'. 

It took four years to plan the Moon mission

Kasturirangan told that "Then Vajpayee had said that the name of the mission should not be Somayan, but Chandrayaan. Since the country is now emerging as an economic power, India will now make many exploration trips to the Moon." 

Talking about the lunar mission, Dr. K.K. "It took four years to plan the mission and another four years to implement it," says Kasturirangan. 

How was the foundation of Mission Moon laid?

According to ISRO, in the year 1999, during a discussion of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the concept of the Indian lunar mission was kept. After this, the Astronautical Society of India took forward the plan of the lunar mission in the year 2002. The Government of India approved ISRO's proposal for an Indian lunar mission in November 2003. After this, the way for India to fly to the moon was cleared. 

In 2003, on the occasion of India's 56th Independence Day, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced India's first lunar mission while addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort. He had said, "Our country is ready to fly high in the field of science. I am happy to announce that India will send its spacecraft to the Moon by 2008. It is being named Chandrayaan."