Chandrayaan-2's lander Vikram suffered no damage; efforts on to establish communication confirms ISRO

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday said that  Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander has not suffered any damage and it was in a single piece. ISRO is still trying to make efforts to restore the connection with Vikram lander, which is now lying on the lunar surface after a hard-landing, according to a Zee Business TV report. Vikram, with rover 'Pragyan' inside it, lost communication with the ISRO control room during its final descent, just 2.1 km above the lunar surface, in the early hours of Saturday.

"We hope that within the last 14 days we will be able to collect data by adding communication. and I am sure we connect soon with Vikram lander and successfully complete our #Chandrayaan2 mission," an ISRO official tweeted today. "#Chandrayaan2 : @isro Continues Efforts To Restore Link With #VikramLander."

Earlier, NASA lauded ISRO’s attempt to land Chandrayaan2 mission on the Moon’s South Pole. An ISRO team in Bengaluru is trying to track the lander.  Chandrayaan 2 mission was a highly complex mission, which represented a significant technological leap compared to the previous missions of ISRO to explore the unexplored south pole of the Moon. No country has yet sent lander on Moon's south pole.

Satellite launch vehicle, GSLV MkIII-M1, successfully launched Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft at 2:43 pm on July 22,2019, into its planned orbit. The launch took place from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. After the injection of Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft, a series of manoeuvres were carried out to raise its orbit and put Chandrayaan 2's Moon lander Vikram on the lunar surface.

The lander-Vikram was finally scheduled to soft-land near South Pole of the moon on September 7, 2019, subsequently, rover Pragyan would roll out and carry out experiments on lunar surface for a period of 1 lunar day which is equal to 14 Earth days. However, lunar lander Vikram hard-landed on Moon's surdace and lost communication with the ISRO control room.