New Delhi , November 14 2008: MATHEMATICIAN AND astronomer turned politician, Dr Thokchom Meinya, Member of Parliament from Manipur here today congratulated Shri G.Madhavan Nair, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Shri Mylaswami Annadurai, Chandrayaan Project Director and their team for the successful mission of Chandrayaan I to the moon.

In his congratulatory message, Dr Meinya said, "At 8:31 pm tonight, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) painted with tricolour on all sides landed near Shackleton crater of the Moon.

Now Indian tricolour marks its presence on the moon after having flown 3, 86,000 km from the Earth.

The United States , the former Soviet Union and the European Space Agency comprising 17 countries already have their flags on the moon.

Indian tricolour has been hoisted in Mt Everest and Antarctica .

And now it is on the surface of the moon though it will not be hoisted.

The flight of MIP is a forerunner to the second Indian moon mission, Chandrayaan II which will carry a Russian rover and a lander slated for lift-off between 2010 and 2012".He also congratulated former president of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam on whose suggestion, MIP was included as part of Chandrayaan mission during International Lunar Exploration Working Group Conference held at Udaipur in November 2004 and Prof.K Kasturirangan, MP and former Chairman, ISRO for earlier Indian space probes.

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