Bengaluru, August 24: Terming the safe landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft's lander on the moon as a "historic achievement", Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said the state government will organise a special programme to officially felicitate ISRO team for this success. The CM visited the Missions Operations Complex at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru and felicitated ISRO chief S Somanath and his team on the successful landing.

He interacted with ISRO scientists and officials there and lauded their achievement. "The government will officially honour them by organising a special programme at the Banquet hall at Vidhana Soudha. About 500 scientists from Karnataka were part of it. ISRO Chairman (S) Somanath and his team will be honoured," Siddaramaiah said. Speaking to reporters here, he said, there will be full cooperation and support from the government for ISRO's initiatives, as he called the space agency "the pride of the country". "Scientists have worked day and night for this accomplishment. Chandrayaan 3 Google Doodle: Search Giant Celebrates India’s Chandrayaan-3 Feat With Special Animated Doodle After Historic Landing on Moon’s South Pole.

A total of 1,000 scientists of the country are involved in the project and about 500 people are from Bengaluru itself," he said, adding that the date of the felicitation program will be fixed after September 2. India on Wednesday scripted history as ISRO's ambitious third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) touched down on the lunar surface, making it only the fourth country to accomplish the feat, and first to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth's only natural satellite. Chandrayaan 3 Lands on Moon: IndiGo Pilots Onboard Get News Flash at 36,000 Feet, Passengers Express Delight on ISRO Spacecraft Successful Lunar Landing (See Pic).

The LM comprising the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan), made the soft landing near the south polar region of the Moon last evening. Earlier today, ISRO announced that the rover ramped down from the lander and "India took a walk on the moon."