Congress jumps to take credit for Chandrayaan-2, BJP lauds scientists

New Delhi, July 22: Even before the sucessful launch of the Chandrayaan-2 could sink in among the people, the Congress was quick to take credit for it. The GSLV-MK-3 blasted off at 2.43 pm and the Congress tweeted at 2.47 pm saying that "This is a good time to remember the visionary move of India's first PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru."

GSLV-Mk-III blasted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) precisely at 2.43 pm with 3290 kilograms payload. It injected the spacecraft into GTO about 16 minutes later.

The twitterati fumed at Congress' tweet and angry reactions flooded the social media platform. Some posted pics of Gandhi family dining in a lixurious room while ISRO carrying launch parts during its inial days on cycle.

"This is a good time to remember the visionary move of India's first PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to fund space research through INCOSPAR in 1962 which later became ISRO. And also Dr. Manmohan Singh for sanctioning the #Chandrayan2 project in 2008," Congress tweet said.

The BJP tweeted 'Jai Hind' and expressed their pride towards the scientists who have done the 'incredible'.

One must recall that Former ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair had said that it the UPA government because of which Chandrayaan-2 got delayed.

ISRO chief Dr K Sivan on Monday confirmed that the GSLV-Mk-3 launch vehicle injected the spacecraft which carries of orbitor, lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan) sucessfully in the Geosynchronous Trasfer Orbit (GTO sucessfully). With this, the Chandrayaan-2 launch phase has been sucessfully accomplished.

After the mission control announced that the spacecraft has been seperated from the launch vehicle, Dr Sivan got up from his seat to confirm the signal from satellite which would technically confirm that it was in the right orbit. He waited for a few seconds, and a wide smile broke out on his determined face. He hugged the ISRO engineers near him and walked up to the podium.

"GSLV-Mk-3 has placed the satellite in Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit successfully. It is the beginning of a historic journey of India towards moon and to land at a place near South Pole to carry out scientific experiments," said ISRO chief Dr K Sivan.

ISRO control room erupted with claps when signal from satellite was received.