Chandrayaan 2: Vikram Lander travelled 548 kilometres in parabolic path before losing contact

Bengaluru, Sep 07: The Orbiter component of the Chandrayaan 2 is doing fine and continues to communicate with the ISRO control room.

The Vikram Lander and Pragyan rover were supposed to land on the moon and cary out experiments and observations for 14 days.

The Vikram Lander was was supposed to make a smooth soft-landing, but 13 minutes after the lander began its descent, the failure took place. The failure took place 13 minutes after the descent began hoping to reduce its speed from 6,048 km per hour to 7 km per hour. The reduction to 7 kilometre or lower was required for a soft landing.

The lander fired its four thrusters in the direction of its movement. Vikram travelled nearly 548 kilometres in a parabolic path before it lost contact. The lander was supposed to hover over the surface to ascertain whether there was a safe place to land.

A normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 kilometres, ISRO said after the Vikram Lander lost communication with the ground station.

ISRO said, "Vikram Lander descent was as planned and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 kilometres. Subsequently communication from lander to the ground stations was lost. Data is being analysed."

Meanwhile officials said that 95 per cent of Chandrayaan 2 is still safe. Reports while quoting ISRO officials said that 95 per cent of the Chandrayaan 2 is still safe. The orbiter will keep circling the moon and also click pictures for 1 year.

The mission life is one year and the Orbiter can take images of the moon and send it to ISRO. Chandrayaan 2 comprises three segments-the Orbiter, Vikram and Pragyan. Vikram separated from the Orbiter on September 2.