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Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander located, efforts on to re-establish contact: ISRO

Earlier on Monday, giving a significant update on India’s moon mission, an ISRO official had said that the Vikram Lander is in a ‘single piece’.

Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander located, efforts on to re-establish contact: ISRO

Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram Lander. (File Photo: IANS/ISSRO)

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday reiterated that its moon lander Vikram has been located by the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2, but no communication has been established yet.

All possible efforts are being made to establish communication with the lander, the Indian space agency said.

The ISRO did not, however, say in what condition the lander is on the lunar surface.

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Earlier on Monday, giving a significant update on India’s moon mission, an ISRO official had said that the Vikram Lander is in a “single piece”.

Talking to news agency PTI, the space agency official said that the “moon lander has not broken though its position is tilted”.

“It has probably hard-landed on Lunar surface as per the thermal images sent by the on-board camera of Chandrayaan’s orbiter,” ISRO Official said.

Not losing hope, the ISRO has continued to make all-out efforts to establish a link with Chandrayaan-2’s ‘Vikram’ lander, now lying on the lunar surface after a hard-landing. Vikram, with rover ‘Pragyan’ housed inside it, hit the lunar surface after communication with the ground-stations was lost during its final descent, just 2.1 km above the lunar surface, in the early hours of Saturday.

“At ISROTelemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) a dedicated team of ISRO scientists are on the job,” the official added.

Earlier on Sunday, ISRO chief K Sivan had announced that the lunar lander of Chandrayaan 2 had been located on the moon’s surface and that the ground station was working to establish contact.

“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,” Sivan said.

India’s ambitious lunar mission faltered in the last leg on Saturday as Vikram lander lost its connection with the ISRO and left the nation anxious. At the time connection with Vikram was lost, the lander was just 2km above the moon’s surface.

Chandrayaan-2, India’s second moon mission spacecraft, lifted off successfully onboard the “Bahubali” rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh on July 22.

After five earth-bound orbit raising activities, Chandrayaan-2 was inserted into lunar orbit. The lander Vikram carrying the rover Pragyan separated from Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft on September 2, in its journey towards the moon.

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