EARTH NEWS SERVICE New Delhi, Dec 16 |15: Amidst thumping of desks, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh announced in Lok Sabha today that “Chandrayaan-2”, India’s Lunar Probe, will land on the surface of moon in 2017 and, among other things, it will explore the possibilities of life or extra-terrestrial life on the moon. Similarly, India’s another landmark Solar Mission to sun “Aditya-L1” is to be launched launched in 2019, he informed. Lauding the glorious achievements of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) during the last one year, Dr Jitendra Singh announced in the Lok Sabha today about successful launch of six Singapore satellites from Sriharikota to mark the Golden Jubilee of the independence of the Republic of Singapore. He further informed that this launch was agreed upon on commercial basis and the government of Singapore has paid 26 million euros for it. In an elaborate reply to a question, Dr Jitendra Singh said, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the past one year has been a year of glory, not only because it placed India as a frontline nation in the field of space technology, but also because India’s space programme emerged as true personification of Prime Minister’s “Make in India” mission. Soon after the swearing-in ceremony of the present government on 26th May 2014, he said, Prime Minister personally visited Sriharikota to witness the launch on 30th of June and the IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) series of seven satellites, when complete by March 2016, will offer navigation inputs to all the neighbouring countries of South Asia. Similarly, the images sent from the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) are now being shared by even the most developed countries of the world, he added. Dr Jitendra Singh said, the most significant achievement of the last 18 months of the present government is that it had firmly established India as an important player in the space market. He disclosed that till now, India had earned 17.17 million US Dollars and 17.98 million Euros from the launch of foreign satellites while 4.5 million US Dollars and 64 million Euros respectively had been committed as a payment for the future launching of foreign satellites which are in pipeline.
