Not sure if Vikram Lander has crashed: ISRO scientist

Bengaluru, Sep 07: An ISRO presser that was scheduled to take place has been cancelled after the Vikram Lander lost communication.

This has led to further speculation about the Chandrayaan 2 mission. ISRO scientists say that it is too early to say anything and the data is still being analysed.

We are not sure if the Vikram Lander has crashed said Deviprasad Karnik, scientist at ISRO. The data is being analysed and these things take time, he said.

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.

ISRO said a while ago in a tweet, " this is mission control centre. 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."

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi who was present at the ISRO centre was briefed by Sivan. Prior to this consultations were held.

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. Ar 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.