To commemorate the successful launch of Chandrayaan-3 Mission, and soft landing of the Vikram Lander and deployment of the Pragyaan Rover on the Moon on 23 August 2023, the Government of India has declared 23rd Day of August of every year as the National Space Day (NSpD). With this achievement, India has joined the elite group of Space fairing nations becoming only the fourth to land on the surface of the Moon, and the first nation to land near the south pole of the Moon. 

To mark this special achievement, on 105th Birth Anniversary of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO) of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL, Department of Space, Govt. of India) has organized the National Space Day (NSpD) with the theme Touching lives while touching the Moon: India's Space Saga on 12 August 2024. The programme started with garlanding of Dr. Sarabhai’s portrait, and continued with various science exhibitions, visit to solar observing facilities, including telescopes at Island, Fateh Sagar namely Multi Application Solar Telescope (MAST), SPAR Telescope, and observing facilities at office campus, namely Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) and radio observing facility e-Callisto.

USO Scientists, Research Scholars, and other staff actively participated in explaining science activities at USO through oral and poster presentations. Further, the participating students of from various schools and colleges and universities had scientific tour to all observing facilities in detail.

On this occasion, Prof. Anil Bhardwaj, Director, PRL, interacted with Print and Electronic Media through video conference from Ahamedabd, elaborating the importance of Chandrayan 3 Mission and informed about upcoming Indian Lunar Missions. He informed that PRL has developed APXS instrument on Pragyan Rover which helped to understand different elemental compositions present on the Moon around the Shiv Shakti point, and the CHASTE instrument on Vikram Lander, which provide the temperatures inside the Moon.

The students got an exposure to the advanced scientific research and technological developments of the country in the field space sciences and solar physics.