India's moon mission locates landing craft; no communication yet
India has located the spacecraft it was trying to land on the moon but has not been able to establish communication with it yet, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Tuesday.
The lander was making a “soft” or controlled landing near the South Pole of the moon on Saturday when it lost contact with ground control in the final stage of the descent.
Space experts said the lander may have come down faster than planned and crash-landed on the moon, in a setback for India's space programme that has captivated millions of countrymen.
ISRO said the spacecraft Chandrayaan-2, which is orbiting the moon, had located the lander but it did not say whether it had been damaged.
“All possible efforts are being made to establish communication with lander,” the state-run space agency said on Twitter.
Only the United States, Russia and China have made landings on the moon. Beijing's Chang'e-4 probe touched down on the far side this year. Scientists believe there could be water ice on the South Pole.
Comments (92) Closed
Keep trying Indians. Whole Pakistan is supporting you.
I am from Pakistan and it's a great feat!
It is such a disgrace and shame for a nation who feel sad today that they cannot communicate with a heartless rover while their heart didn't skip a beat when stopping the communication of 8 million souls living in Kashmir.
i dont see this as a setback. lets hope for the future
Great news. All the best to ISRO.
Pakistanis love science and hard work. But there is a limit to how much hate one can tolerate, coming just because we had won our freedom.
The fact is Indian attempt to land on moon failed and caused embarrassment for Modi. In order to avoid further adverse publicity, as usual, various fabricated stories are created to fool public.
(Note: I'm the original 'Anti-Corruption_Pakistani' account holder for 3 years expressing my candid views on various topics. Be aware of fake ID's!).
Pakistanis are the most generous and open minded people. But here, our patience is being tested by RSS mindset from before the blood soaked partition in 1947.
Good, hope the communication get established.
Well done India.We are proud of you.
Great efforts by Indian space research organization. Asian countries should unite instead of fighting amongst each others
Good luck ISRO. We are proud of you. Vikram please respond...
Next time, they would succeed completely.
Proud of our India.
Best of luck ISRO. We hope a good news in coming days
We'll, NASA's Artemis project can still use the data from the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter.
The mission was not only about the lander.Most of the mission objectives have been achieved. It’s not a huge setback by any standard of imagination
Well another crash landing in a foreign territory. Sounds familiar to neighbors
Great technological stride by India but political remain to be answered whether when poverty is below the line , do they need such a mission or just point scoring
India has great ambitions and capablities.
Hopefully communication will restore with Lander and base but Modi Ji please restore communication in Kashmir.Thanks.
Weldon isro
I don’t think it will work. It had a malfunctioning engine. Better luck next time.
And that was possible due to the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter, which is still in the moon orbit. And collecting useful information.
The same story is being run by all media every two days. Please stop until there is a significant change. Thanks.
I hope something good come up which will help at next try Hope for better luck next time
Well done to india for not giving up n
Still India has 11days to establish contact with lander ,
India is different from it's Western neighbour.Failure is the Piller of success.Failure is way better than not even trying and depend on others.
its will be miracle to make it work. the lower atmosphere of moon is not known to many space organizations.
best of luck isro
Congratulation, Indian space scientists.
@Bipul , Are you a space scientist?
No matter what India says, the facts is that Modi's dream to moon landing failed and caused embarrassment for India. It appears that the spacecraft malfunctioned due to one of the design, manfucturing and delivery system defects - back to drawing board for another attempt in a few years time!
(Note: I'm the original 'Anti-Corruption_Pakistani' - account holder for 3 years expressing my candid views on various topics. Be aware of fake ID's!).
Isro cheif crying is public was so embarrassing
More pollution of the moon.
@Bipul , Before criticizing India and others, ask when your own country will develop satellite launching capabilities - can't depend on China forever.
Good job by Indian Scientists!
What has been achieved is in itself commendable. After all the lander and the rover were technology demonstrators.Be relentless in persuit of excellence and never give up.
@Bipul , it’s was a connection issue not engine issue, if will work if connects.
Vikram lander is dead and body scattered over the South Pole of lunar; end of mission. Do better next time.
It is a huge achievement. Congratulations India. Naysayers have no idea how many NASA spacecrafts failed to even lift off. Please accept congrats of educated Pakistanis.
Its dead now !! Try again with better math and calculations , ISRO can and will do it.!
Too little, too late.
@Bipul , It was not a malfunctioning engine. If that was the case it wouldn't have left Earth's atmosphere.. It was because of excessive thrust on the drop down.
It didnt had zero horizontal velocity and it was tilted to a slight 20 degrees at the altutude of 2kms, as a result it couldnt land softly with its legs..
Now no hope for Vikram Lander as it may be damaged during its landing on moon. If it was a soft landed also its life is just 14 days. Anyways, as Orbitor is intact and working fine, the 95% of the scheduled experiments can be conducted with it for the next 7 years.
Let them try,try and try. They will succeed.
Soon we shall all hear that communication has been established and landing craft has finally landed. Remember india is so good in propaganda and spreading baseless information!!
Too bad when all communication is cut off, isn't it?
@Bipul , At least it had indigenous engine , not air ballon.
If it had a rough landing an electrical connection or an electrical component may have broken loose.
Remember this is Chandra Yan 2 not 1
Sincere efforts never go waste. We have trust in ISRO. And this trust is the out come of the achievements it has garnered till date.
Remember this is Chandra Yan 2 not 1 and India had made earlier successful mission to moon
This is Chandra Yan 2 not 1
We Indians seem to have bad communication skills.
But it failed to land as planned. Communication is not possible.
technological achievement unlocked by India.
Who will clean up the junk sent up in space?
Regardless of the final out, it was a great effort and technological break through, We hope lessons were learned.
More cheap junk on the moon. Leave the moon alone.
The lander crashed due to India's lack of technical expertise and it comes as no surprise to anybody.
At least they tried. Successes come only after failures.
Well done to India .. this is still a huge achievement for them to be able to send it that far on their own. Better luck next time and hope one day we will be able to emulate them in technology I.A.
According to European Spare Agency, landing on the south pole side of the moon is a very difficult thing. There are lot of complications there.
@Bipul , How communication has a connection with the engine?
@Bipul , no malfunctioning it was. One part over performed than what was required.
Great work! Just one step away from milestone..bravo!
Happens. Move on. Good attempt.
The media, especially the Big 5, is so strong in India, that it can build a story to make the failed mission as a big success.
I guess it is more to do with software glitch where 5th engine failed to ignite after 4 main engines were shut off as per procedure. This is good to be in this situation to analyze and remediate fault for the success of future endeavors. Space is a final frontier for the benefit of humankind but is challenging and brutal, everything has to be done correctly and you learn from harsh failures. Those who feel dejected should rejoice and applaud efforts of all involved.
@Bipul , You went to the lunar south pole and ascertained this? When ISRO has not revealed these details, how do you know what's happening Mr. Armchair space scientist?
Space junk ad nauseum...
Gordon D. Walker
Canada
Overrated and over-reported.
Somebody didn't check the engine oil.
never mind india, a small set back, i'm sure your goverment will send another mission again costing Billions of dollars or trillions of rupees, no problem your country is rich.
US, Russia and China have already sent successful probes with a host of information and data collected over the years. India does not need to repeat the futile exercise with a major financial burden and top of that a major financial loss. Being a follower and Me too philosophy is not progress particularly when it fails like this one. India can do better with that money for its people at large.
Too too good for India and humanity that India should succeed.
Successful in landing Vikram on moon, however unsuccessful so far in communicating
India don't waste your poor people money on things which you can not do.. leave Kashmir, give human rights to minorities every thing will be then settle for you.
Very close - congratulations!!! It’s still a great feat.
@Bipul , and who are you again? Must be an arm chair expert...
@Bipul , Yeah beating the bushes. Try again.
It didnt crash land
Just went down for some tea.
The fact that Indians came so close in USD 140mln is a tremendous job.
@Shehbaz, Thank you for your positive comments. Science has no political boundaries.
@Tahir Raouf, scientific achievements and progress helps all mankind in elevating their living standard. Future will show it's effects.
@Moksha, absolutely right.
@MONIER, refurbish your information. No one landed on the South Pole due to its hazardous and rocky terrain with lots of electromagnetic dust. The 3 countries chose easy landing sites. Mission was to locate water and helium gases thought to be available near the South Pole.
The climax of Indian technology which is unable to provide adequate toilet facilities to more than 80 percent of its hapless and helpless billion plus population?
@Farid, we are not feeling sad man! and that is why we reached so far. Science moves by logic and reason and not by emotions, failure is a part of learning process and the recent one is no exception.