The lander Vikram, with rover ‘Pragyan’ tucked inside it, lost communication with the ground-stations during its final descent, just 2.1 kms above the lunar surface
ISRO is racing against time to spring ‘Vikram’ back to life and salvage the lander-rover part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission. The lander Vikram, with rover ‘Pragyan’ tucked inside it, lost communication with the ground-stations during its final descent, just 2.1 kms above the lunar surface, minutes before the planned soft-landing in the early hours of Saturday.
ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) said on Sunday Vikram had a “hard-landing”. The Bengaluru-headquarterd space agency on Tuesday again confirmed that the lander has been located on the lunar surface by the on-board cameras of the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter which is circling the moon in its intended orbit.
“All possible efforts are being made to establish communication with (the) lander”, ISRO further said in a tweet. A senior ISRO official associated with the mission said: “The images from the orbiter camera showed that Vikram is in single piece lying on the lunar surface; not broken into pieces. it is in a tilted position. It’s not in its four legs, as usual”…
