Chandrayaan 2: How India lost contact with the moon lander just 12 seconds before historic landing?
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NEW DELHI - Chandrayaan-2's Vikram Lander was just 2.1 kilometres away from making history when it lost contact with the Indian Space Research Organisation Mission Control Centre.
The descent progressed smoothly for 13 minutes before Vikram started to deviate from its planned path and about 12 seconds before the touch down on Moon's surface , ISRO scientists at the agency's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bengaluru started to look nervous as Prime Minister Narendra Modi watched the spacecraft's progress on a large screen.
Even as entire India prayed for some good news early Saturday morning, a dejected ISRO chairperson K Sivan announced that contact with Vikram was lost.
Replying to a query that whether Vikram Lander has crashed, Deviprasad Karnik, a scientist at ISRO said that data is being analysed and ISRO does not have any result yet. Karnik added that it takes time to analyse the data and ISRO is not sure about the fate of Vikram Lander.
This is Mission Control Centre. #VikramLander link descent was as planned and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km. Subsequently, communication from Lander to the ground stations was lost. Data is being analyzed.#ISRO link 109K link 2:30 AM - Sep 7, 2019 link Twitter Ads info and privacy link
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Prime Minister Modi was briefed by the ISRO chairperson and other senior scientists after Vikram Lander lost contact with Mission Control Centre.
The Prime Minister praised ISRO scientists and said that life is full of ups and downs. He lauded the scientists for their efforts and said that Chandrayaan-2 was not a small achievement. He added that the nation is proud of ISRO and asked the space scientists to remain courageous.
He also congratulated the scientists and said that they have done a big service to nation, science and mankind. The prime minister assured the ISRO scientists that he is always with them and encouraged them to move forward bravely.
