Chandrayaan-2 Lander located on moon's surface, says ISRO

International Desk: Chandrayaan 2 lunar lander Vikram has been located on the moon's surface and the ground station is working to establish contact, news agency PTI quoted ISRO chief K Sivan as saying on Sunday.

ISRO had lost contact with Vikram, one of three components of the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft, on Saturday morning while the lander was attempting a historic soft landing near the south pole of the moon. The lander stopped transmitting just 2.1 kilometres from the moon's surface.

"Yes, we have located the lander on the Lunar surface. It must have been a hard-landing," Dr Sivan said, adding that it was unclear at this stage if the lander had been damaged.

News agency ANI quoted Dr Sivan as saying the lunar orbiter had taken a thermal image of the lander.

"... orbiter has clicked a thermal image of Lander. But there is no communication yet. We are trying to have contact. It will be communicated soon," he was quoted as saying.

India had expected to make space history with the Rs. 1,000-crore Chandrayaan 2 mission. A successful soft landing on the moon's surface would have made the country only the fourth - after the United States, Russia and China - to achieve the feat. _NDTV

risingbd/Dhaka/September 08, 2019/AKA