India lost contact with its spacecraft trying to land on the moon on Saturday, a setback for its ambitious plans to be the first country to explore the moon's south pole.

"There is success and failure in life. What you have accomplished is not a simple thing," said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was at the Space Research Organization's Center for Scientists after seeing the reality of the situation.

The probe "Chandrayaan 2" was trying to make a program landing near the south pole of the moon 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.

"The data is being analyzed," KCS chief Ki Sivan said in a room full of scientists who were disturbed by the news at the agency's monitoring center in Bengaluru.

The lunar-designed spacecraft began orbiting the moon at 20:07 GMT, but scientists lost contact with it during the penultimate stage of the landing.

"The landing of Vikram was proceeding as planned, and its performance was normally monitored to a height of 2.1 kilometers," said an official at the Indian Space Research Organization.

The probe was named after Vikram Sarabhai, founder of the Indian space program.