Earlier today, somewhere around 2:00 AM, the entire nation was awake to witness Chandrayaan 2 make history with its soft-landing on the south-pole side of the moon.
The lander Vikram was in its final descending phase, at around 2.1 km from the lunar surface when we unfortunately lost communication.
The status of Vikram still remains unknown. We’re unaware of its fate — if it landed safely or had a crash-landing or maybe it was nothing but a communication glitch.
According to TOI, an unnamed ISRO official stated:
Only 5 percent of the mission has been lost – Vikram the rover – while the remaining 95 percent – that is the Chandrayaan-2-orbiter is orbiting the moon successfully.
With a mission life of a year, the orbiter can click several pictures of the moon and send it to ISRO as they analyse it.
Infact, there might be a chance that the Orbiter can update us on the status of the landing by taking pictures of Vikram–the lander
Earlier this morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the scientists and the nation from ISRO’s command center in Bengaluru.
The nation is holding on to every ounce of hope.
We are proud of you ISRO. This was an amazing feat to achieve.