Published 21:31 IST, September 8th 2019
Chandrayaan 2: Australian Space Agency lauds ISRO's efforts
The Australian Space Agency on Saturday lauded ISRO’s effort of attempting a soft-landing of Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-2 Mission. Hails commitment and effort
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The Australian Space Agency on Saturday lauded ISRO’s effort of attempting a soft-landing of Vikram Lander of Chandrayaan 2 Mission. The agency in a tweet said that it applauds the commitment and efforts of ISRO to continue the journey into space.
The #VikramLander was just a few kilometres short of realising its mission to the Moon today. To the team at @isro, we applaud your efforts and the commitment to continue our journey into space. https://t.co/jGhBaVhxAL
— Australian Space Agency (@AusSpaceAgency) September 7, 2019
Apart from the Australian Space Agency, the UAE Space Agency had earlier offered full support following the loss of communication with Vikram Lander.
The #UAESpaceAgency assure their full support to the @isro following the loss of contact with their spacecraft, Chandrayaan-2 which had to land on the moon. #India proved to be a strategic player in the #space sector & a partner in its development & achievements pic.twitter.com/f3j14gsMqS
— وكالةالإمارات للفضاء (@uaespaceagency) September 7, 2019
About Chandrayaan-2 mission
The Chandrayaan-2 mission took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on 22 July. After revolving around the Earth's orbit for nearly 23 days, the craft began its journey to the moon on 14 August. On September 2, successfully separated from Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter after which it was supposed to make the much-anticipated soft landing at scheduled 1.50 Am on Saturday. But in a bid to do so, the lander lost contact with the mission control room of ISRO.
The soft landing that was missed by a mere 2.1 km
Earlier on Saturday morning at 1:50 AM when Vikram Lander was scheduled to land, ISRO's Deep Space Antenna lost communication with Chandrayaan-2's lander- Vikram as it descended towards the lunar surface. The lander had descended from 30 km to 2km smoothly. During the final smooth braking stage, it had lost communication with Mission Control. Vikram Lander was aimed at soft-landing on the moon, making India the fourth country to do so.
Orbiter can still send crucial data
Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is still orbiting the polar regions of the moon, sending crucial data and high-resolution images which will help in mapping the lunar surface and will help future lunar explorations around the world. The orbiter's high-resolution camera imaging will create images with 32 cm higher resolution which can help us understand about water and ice even 10 meters below the moon's surface.
(With inputs from agencies)
19:45 IST, September 8th 2019