ISRO says moon lander Vikram located by Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter
CHENNAI: The Indian space agency on Tuesday reiterated that its moon lander Vikram has been located by the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter.
"#VikramLander has been located by the orbiter of #Chandrayaan2, but no communication with it yet," the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) tweeted.
"All possible efforts are being made to establish communication with lander," ISRO said.
The ISRO did not, however, say in what condition the lander is on the lunar surface.
The space agency continues to remain silent as to proximate cause for the moon lander tumbling and deviating from its original flight path on September 7 early morning.
The Lander Vikram was to soft-land on the far side of the moon at on September 7. Minutes before its scheduled soft-landing, the communication with Vikram Lander was lost.
It was 2.1 km above the moon's surface when it lost contact with the ground stations.
A success would have made India the fourth country to place a spacecraft on the moon after the then USSR, the U.S. and China. Also, India would have been the first country to reach close to the lunar South Pole.
The Vikram Lander successfully separated from Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter on September 2. After revolving around the Earth's orbit for nearly 23 days, the craft began its journey to the moon on August 14.
The mission took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 22.