Vikram Lander had hard landing: NASA on its images from moon's surface

The National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) on Friday posted on Twitter pictures from its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from the surface of the moon and said it was unable to locate Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan 2's Vikram Lander. It also said that Vikram Lander had a hard landing. ISRO's Chandrayaan 2 mission faced a setback when the Vikram Lander just minutes before landing on the moon lost all communication on September 6, 2019. See the pictures below:

NASA's pictures from LRO of the moon's surface

More images from NASA's LRO below 

The scene above was captured from a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Quickmap fly-around of the targeted landing site image width is about 150 kilometers across the center. Credits: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

A view looking down on the Vikram landing site (image acquired before the landing attempt), image width 87 kilometers (54 miles) Credits: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

A wide view of a series of Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter Camera's narrow angle camera images collected on Sept. 17 showing the area of the targeted Vikram landing site. Credits: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

READ | Chandrayaan 2: NASA says Vikram lander may be hiding in shadows

NASA says Vikram Lander had hard landing, likely to locate it in October

The NASA which released the pictures taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRC) said that Vikram Lander must have had a hard landing. The NASA said that 'precise location of the spacecraft in the lunar highland' was yet to be deteremined. It also said that Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Quickmap fly-around of the targeted landing site image width is about 150 kilometers across the center. The American space agency has saidi that it is possible that the Vikram Lander was hiding under a shadow as the photographs were taken at dusk. NASA added that the LROC will take pictures of the lunar surface again to locate the lander.

READ | Russia, UAE all praise for ISRO post losing contact with the lander

India's moon mission: Chandrayaan 2

Chandrayaan 2 is India's moon mission with which it attempted to land-soft at the south pole of the moon. As Vikram lander of Chandrayaan 2 was about to touchdown the lunar surface, in the morning at 1:50 AM, ISRO's Deep Space Antenna lost communication with Chandrayaan-2's lander- Vikram. The lander had descended from 30km to 2km smoothly, informed ISRO. During the final smooth braking stage, it had lost communication with Mission Control. Vikram was aimed at soft-landing on the moon, making India the fourth country to do so.   

READ | Chandrayaan 2: Brad Pitt asks ISS if it saw India's Moon lander

READ | ISRO to find out why Vikram Lander failed to land smoothly on moon