NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India lost contact with a spacecraft trying to land on the moon on Monday, the head of India's space research organization said, in a setback to New Delhi's ambitious plans to become the first country to explore the moon's south pole.
The probe Chandrian-2 was trying to make a "smooth" or "controlled" landing near the moon's south pole, where scientists believe the possibility of freezing water. The Indian Space Research Organization lost contact with the spacecraft when it was about to land on the moon.
JK said. "The data is being analyzed," said Sevan in a room full of scientists who were disturbed by the news at the organization's monitoring center in Bengaluru. The lunar-designed spacecraft, orbiting the moon, began to descend on the moon, but scientists lost contact with it during the penultimate stage of the landing.
"The landing of Vikram was on track as planned, and its performance was monitored normally up to 2.1 kilometers," an Indian Space Research Organization official said. Later communications from the probe to earth stations were lost. ” The probe was named Vikram after Vikram Sarabhai, father of India's space program.
"There is success and failure in life, what you have accomplished is not a simple thing," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was at the space research organization's Center for Scientists after being briefed by the organization's chief, Sevan, said.