A day after US space agency NASA located the debris of Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander, ISRO chairman K Sivan said the space agency’s own orbiter had located the lander earlier and also declared it on its website.
“Our own orbiter had located Vikram. We had already declared that on our website,” Dr Sivan said.
ISRO’s website dated September 10 reads: “Vikram lander has been located by the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2, but no communication with it yet. All possible efforts are being made to establish communication with lander.”
On Tuesday, NASA announced that Chandrayaan-2’s lander Vikram, which crashed while attempting a soft landing on the moon in September, has been found.
“The #Chandrayaan2 Vikram lander has been found by our @NASAMoon mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter,” NASA had tweeted.
The US space agency said ISRO lost contact with their lander shortly before the scheduled touchdown (Sept. 7 in India, Sept. 6 in the United States). Despite the loss, getting that close to the surface was an amazing achievement.
“The Chandrayaan 2 Vikram lander was targeted for a highland smooth plain about 600 kilometers from the south pole; unfortunately, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost contact with their lander shortly before the scheduled touchdown (Sept. 7 in India, Sept. 6 in the United States). Despite the loss, getting that close to the surface was an amazing achievement,” the release said.
