PM Modi congratulates Japanese counterpart, space agency on moon landing

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 wants to cooperate in space exploration.

He was responding to a post on X announcing Kishida’s successful moon landing.

Modi said, “Congratulations to Prime Minister @Kishida230 and everyone at JAXA on achieving Japan’s first soft Moon landing. India looks forward to our collaboration in space exploration between @isro and JAXA.

JAXA is the acronym for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Japan became the fifth country in history to reach the moon when its spacecraft landed on the moon’s surface early Saturday, officials said. But power supply problems mean the mission could be in jeopardy.

Japanese officials also said they needed more time to analyze whether the spacecraft, which was not carrying astronauts, made the landing one of the mission’s priorities. India successfully completed its moon mission last year.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)