NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratulated his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida and the country’s aerospace agency for landing a spacecraft on the Moon, and said India looks to cooperation in space exploration. He was responding to a post on X by Kishida announcing the successful moon landing.
Modi said, “Congratulations Prime Minister @Kishida230 and everyone at JAXA on achieving Japan‘s first soft Moon landing. India looks forward to our cooperation in space exploration between @isro and JAXA.”
JAXA is short form of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Japan became the fifth country in history to reach the moon when its spacecraft landed on the lunar surface early Saturday, officials said. But an issue with the power supply means that the mission could be in jeopardy.
Japanese officials also said they needed more time to analyse whether the spacecraft, which wasn’t carrying astronauts, made a pinpoint landing one of the priorities of the mission.
India had last year successfully completed its lunar mission.