Be courageous says Modi after communication with Vikram lander is lost

Bengaluru, Sep 07: Communication with the Chandrayaan 2 lander was lost before it was to touch down on the moon's surface.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present at the ISRO centre told the scientists that there are ups and downs in life. The country is proud of you. Never lose hope, he said.

The moon lander, Vikram was separated from its orbiting mothership. It performed a series of manoeuvres to lower its altitude for a touchdown between 1.30 am and 2.30 am.

ISRO had termed this operation as tricky and even called it 15 minutes of terror. All around 2.1 kilometres from the surface, contact was lost. The data was being analysed, scientists at ISRO said.

In a tweet, Modi said, "India is proud of our scientists! They've given their best and have always made India proud. These are moments to be courageous, and courageous we will be! Chairman @isro gave updates on Chandrayaan-2. We remain hopeful and will continue working hard on our space programme.