One should be proud of ISRO: Sitharaman on Mamata's comment

Disapproving of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's comment that the Central government was playing up Chandrayaan 2 to divert attention from the economic issues, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam on Friday said when around the world there was great admiration for the historic mission, one should not look at it in any other way.

"The world over there is great admiration for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), particuarly because this mission is historic in that the mission is going to touch and land in that part of the moon where no one has set foot.

"It's a proud moment for every Indian. No need to look at it any other way rather than being proud of ISRO," she said.

Earlier in the day, addressing the state assembly, Banerjee had mocked the Narendra Modi government on the issue.

"It is as if Chandrayaan launch is the first such happening in the country. As if before they came to power, no such missions were taken up. It is an attempt to divert attention from economic disaster," she said Banerjee's comments came during a discussion in the House on the National Register for Citizens (NRC) final list published in Assam.

The Chandrayaan-2 is the second moon mission and the first moon landing mission being carried out by the ISRO.

The final descent of Chandrayaan-2 on the moon surface is slated to take place in the early hours of Saturday.

Modi will be at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru on Saturday to watch the final descent of Chandrayaan-2 on the lunar south pole.

Chandrayaan 2 is a three-module spacecraft comprising an orbiter, lander and rover.

ISRO in a statement said: "The lander Vikram is scheduled to powered descent between 01.00 to 02.00 hrs IST on September 07, 2019, which is then followed by touch down of Lander between 01.30 to 02.30 hrs IST."

After the moon touch-down by Vikram, rover Pragyan will roll down from the former to carry out the research for which it was designed.

Meanwhile, Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter would continue to go around the Moon in an orbit of 96 km x 125 km.

On July 22, the Rs 978 crore Chandrayaan-2 was launched into the space by India's heavy lift rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mk III) in a text book style.