BENGALURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi who flew down to Bengaluru directly from the Greek capital of Athens (after he had left  Johannesburg) to interact with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists on Saturday announced that August 23 will be celebrated as National Space Day to mark Chandrayaan-3's landing on the Moon.

He also announced that the place where the lander 'Vikram' touched down on the lunar surface will be named 'Shiva Shakti Point' and the place where the Chandrayaan-2 lander crash-landed on the Moon's surface in 2019 would be known as 'Tiranga Point'.

PM Modi was visibly emotional as he addressed the scientists who were involved in the Chandrayaan-3 mission at the ISRO at the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) centre and lauded their efforts. 

He said that the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission was an 'extraordinary moment' in the history of India's space programme and that our scientists had taken the 'Make In India' initiative to the Moon.

He said that he wanted to salute the scientists as soon as possible, however since he was not in the country at the time of the great success, he decided to visit Bengaluru first thing on returning and meet the scientists.

ISRO Chairman S Somanath briefed him about the Chandrayaan-3 mission and on the successful touch down of the Lander Module 'Vikram' on the lunar surface, on Wednesday evening and introduced him to the entire team. Modi also especially lauded the contribution of the women space scientists at ISRO and was seen interacting with them before posing for a group photograph.

PM Modi who was attending the 15th BRICS summit at that time joined the ISRO team virtually from Johannesburg and cheered when the mission was accomplished successfully. 

Prior to visiting ISRO PM Modi who landed at the HAL airport in Bengaluru which is close to ISRO said, "I could not stop myself as I was not in the country, but I decided to visit Bengaluru first and meet our scientists right after visiting India." He also raised the slogan 'Jai Vigyan Jai Anusandhan' during his address at the airport.