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India's Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission has been honoured with the 2026 Goddard Astronautics Award by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), presented in Washington DC on May 21.
On August 23, 2023, Chandrayaan-3 made history as the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing near the Moon's south pole -- a region of immense scientific and strategic importance that had never before been explored at the surface level. The mission delivered critical data to support future human missions to the Moon and confirmed the presence of key chemical elements in the lunar south polar soil, pointing to local resources that could one day sustain manufacturing operations on the surface. India's Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Vinay Kwatra, accepted the award on behalf of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at the AIAA ASCEND 2026 Conference. In his remarks, Ambassador Kwatra outlined Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Space Vision 2047, highlighting India's roadmap for deep space exploration, human spaceflight, and the rapid growth of its commercial space sector. He also called for strengthened collaboration between the governments, industries, and research institutions of India and the United States -- underscoring the deepening partnership between the two nations in space exploration. The Goddard Astronautics Award is the highest honour AIAA bestows for notable achievements in the field of astronautics. The award is presented to an individual or team. Team nominations include a listing of contributors, from which two at most are designated as representatives to formally accept the award. It was endowed by Mrs Goddard to commemorate her husband, Robert H. Goddard, rocket visionary, pioneer, bold experimentalist, and superb engineer, whose early liquid rocket engine launches set the stage for the development of astronautics. The award received its current form in 1975, when the institute changed the name and widened the selection criteria of its former Goddard Award (which had been bestowed for contributions in the engineering science of propulsion and energy conversion). (ANI)
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