NASA administrator Bill Nelson on Friday commended India on landing on the south pole of the moon.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Nelson said, “My congratulations to India, you have done something that no one else has done. You have landed first around the south pole of the moon. We will have a commercial lander that will land next year. But the first was India. Others have tried, and others have failed. But India was successful. You deserve every bit of praise for this accomplishment. It’s very significant…”

Speaking about the NISAR mission further Nelson said, “This is a major observatory that we are putting up with the Indian government. There are four major observatories. Once we get all four up, along with the 25 spacecraft that we already have in orbit… We will have a complete 3D composite model of what is exactly happening to the Earth… We want to preserve our home… The first of these great observatories is NISAR.”

“It will observe all the surfaces of the earth. It will see any changes in the water, the land, and the ice. That will be another set of data that will help us understand what is happening to the earth… That mission is coming in the first part of next year. The rocket is provided by the Indian Space Agency, and then we have built the spacecraft together… It is being prepared in Bangalore at ISRO…” he added.

The NISAR mission, a collaborative Earth-observing effort between NASA and ISRO, aims to assist researchers in examining the impact of alterations in the Earth’s forest and wetland ecosystems on the global carbon cycle, thereby influencing climate change.

Bill Nelson, the Administrator of NASA, arrived in India to engage in a series of strategic discussions and events with the goal of enhancing the collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Upon his visit to India, Nelson met with the first Indian to fly to space Rakesh Sharma.

“It was a great honor to speak with students in Bengaluru today with Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to fly to space. His story lit up the room! To the Artemis Generation in India and beyond: Work hard, dream big, and reach for the stars. The universe is the limit!” Nelson wrote on X.