8th September, 2019
Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) said today it has located Chandrayaan 2 lunar lander Vikram on the moon’s surface and is stepping up efforts to establish contact.
ISRO chief Kailasavadivoo Sivan gave this news today to the Indian news agency ANI.
ISRO had lost contact with Vikram on Saturday morning while the lander was attempting a historic soft landing near the south pole of the moon.
“We’ve found the location of lander Vikram on lunar surface and orbiter has clicked a thermal image of the lander. But there is no communication yet. We are trying to have contact. It will be communicated soon,” Mr Sivan said.
Chandrayaan 2 began its journey on July 22 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The Rs. 1,000-crore mission, which cost only 1/20th of Hollywood blockbuster ‘Avengers: Endgame’, was expected to help India make space history by making the country only the fourth – after the United States, Russia and China – to achieve the feat.
The mission had been scheduled to launch a week earlier but the launch was aborted less than an hour before lift-off after a technical glitch.