Elon Musk reacts to Chandrayaan-3 success

Elon Musk with PM Narendra Modi in a photograph taken in June 2023.

India made history on August 23 by landing on the far side of the moon. It became only the fourth country ever to make a soft landing on the lunar surface, and the first to do it near the moon’s south pole. With this, India has entered an elite club of three other nations -- United States, Russia and China -- that have a rover on the lunar surface. Congratulatory tweets have been pouring in for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from all over the world.

World leaders and embassies of several nations have already congratulated ISRO on the successful Chandrayaan-3 moon landing, as have several high-profile founders and entrepreneurs. On Wednesday, SpaceX founder and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, also congratulated India on its success.

“Congratulations India,” Elon Musk wrote on X, his microblogging platform that was formerly known as Twitter. The X owner was responding to a post from ISRO showing pictures of the lunar surface taken during Chandrayaan-3 lander module’s descent.

Congratulations India !!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2023

Musk has also praised India’s moon mission in the past. Recently, a post went viral comparing the budget of Chandrayaan-3 mission ($75 million) with the budget of Hollywood blockbuster Interstellar ($165 million).

“Good for India,” the billionaire tweeted in response to the post.

Good for India ! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 22, 2023

Comprising the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan), Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar south pole at 6.04 pm on August 3. With this touchdown, India has become the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the lunar surface after the US, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The mission was launched on July 14 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.