India has announced that the landing site of its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will be named Shiv Shakti Point. The name was announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru on Saturday.
The words "Shiv" and "Shakti" are Sanskrit for "Shiva" and "power," respectively. Shiva is a supreme god in Hinduism, and Shakti in this case refers to the perseverance of women scientists, Modi said.
The lunar location where Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander crashed in 2019 will be named Tiranga Point, Modi added. Also a Sanskrit word, "Tiranga" translates to "three colors" and colloquially refers to India's tricolor flag.
"This will be an inspiration for every effort made by India," said Modi. "It will remind us that any failure is not final."
These names are still informal, as they have not yet been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a Paris-based authority that bestows official names upon celestial bodies and their features. It was not immediately clear whether ISRO had already submitted the announced names to the IAU.
Meanwhile, the robotic lander and rover duo that make up the Chandrayaan-3 surface mission have been making the most of their planned two-week lifespan on the moon. The lander Vikram has operated an onboard payload called Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment (or ChaSTE) to measure the temperature of the lunar soil at different depths, which is the first time such an experiment has been performed on our celestial neighbor.
ISRO also shared on X (formerly Twitter) that the rover Pragyan, which has been exploring its new home, had been rerouted after it came across a striking but potentially deadly crater.
The successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 is a major milestone for India's space program and a testament to the hard work and dedication of the ISRO team. The naming of the landing site as Shiv Shakti Point is a fitting tribute to the women scientists who have played a key role in the mission's success.