According to sources it was reported that isro has been awarded the 2023 Leif Erikson Lunar prize by the Exploration Museum in Iceland’s Husavik for its successful Chandrayaan-3 mission. The award celebrates the first soft-landing of a spacecraft near the lunar south pole and “ISRO’s indomitable spirit in advancing lunar exploration and contributing to understanding celestial mysteries,” the Embassy of india in Reykjavik said in a post on X.

Meanwhile the indian space research organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath sent a “thank you” video message on the occasion and the prize was received on behalf of the space agency by Ambassador B Shyam. The Leif Erikson Award is an annual prize given by the Exploration Museum since 2015. It is named after Leif Erikson a Norse explorer thought to be the first european to set foot on continental America, almost four centuries before the expedition of christopher Columbus.

Moreover it was reported that Chandrayaan-3 was India’s third mission to the moon, and the second attempt to carry out a soft-landing on the lunar surface. isro managed to place the vikram lander on the lunar surface and roll out the robotic rover, Pragyaan.


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