APD | India’s moon lander goes silent hours before landing

By APD writer Rishika Chauhan

India’s moon lander, named ‘Vikram’ went silent on Friday night, a few hours before it was to land.

The mission called Chandrayaan-2 was going successfully, however Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) chief K. Sivan informed that 2.1 kilometres above the surface of the Moon they lost contact with the lander.

However, the communication failure is not being understood as the failure of the mission. Reacting to the reports, NASA said that 40% of the lunar missions had failed in last 60 years.

Writer and managing editor of NASA Spaceflight Chris G said, "The orbiter is where 95 per cent of the experiments are".

"If Vikram failed to land - which it looks like remember the orbiter is where 95 per cent of the experiments are. The orbiter is safely in lunar orbit and performing its mission. This is not a total failure. Not at all," he added.

NASA's 'Moon Fact Sheet' stated that from 1958 to 2019, many countries including India, China, the US, Russia, Japan, the European Union and Israel launched lunar missions. However, of the 109 lunar missions only 61 were successful, while 48 failed.

An ISRO official further informed, "Only 5 per cent of the mission has been lost - Vikram, the lander, and Pragyan, the rover. The remaining 95 per cent, that is the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter, is orbiting the moon successfully."

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)