Rajasthan sports minister Ashok Chandna made a massive gaffe on Wednesday while expressing his happiness over India’s historic Chandrayaan-3’s successful lunar landing and congratulated “passengers” he suggested were a part of the mission.
Chandna made the slip and hailed the “passengers on Chandrayaan-3” and got brutally trolled for his howler, PTI reported.
“Agar safe landing hui, to jo yatri gaye hain hamare unko salaam karta hu (If we are successful and make a safe landing, I salute the passengers),” he told reporters hours before India scripted history by successfully landing on Moon’s south pole.
Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander carried a rover, Pragyan, and no passengers. It isn’t a human space mission.
The goof-up by the Congress minister invited a plethora of comments by users who used the opportunity to make jokes. While some questioned the “scientific temper” of Rajasthan minister, others hailed and saluted ‘Gems of Congress’.
Also Read: Chandrayaan-3 mission: The journey to the Moon so far
‘India is on the moon’
Chandrayaan-3 made a successful soft-landing on the moon on Wednesday evening, making India only the fourth country after the United States, Russia and China, to do so and the first to reach its uncharted south pole.
Officials at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) headquarters in Bengaluru broke into happy cheers after the Vikram began its powered vertical descent towards its landing site. “India is on the moon,” PM Modi who is currently attending the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg said.
Also Read: Chandrayaan 3: India’s Audacious Leap to Lunar Supremacy and Scientific Triumph
He watched the live telecast and as soon as the touchdown happened he sported a big smile and waved the tricolour.
ISRO officially declared the successful landing in a post on X, saying, “‘India, I reached my destination and you too!’: Chandrayaan-3.”
The mission aims to study the Moon’s geology, its water resources, and its potential for future human exploration.