A wave of disappointment gripped the ISRO’s command centre as the contact with the Vikram lander was lost at an altitude of 2.1 km after successful descent. PM Modi who was in Bengaluru to witness the historic moment consoled the ISRO chief K Sivan who broke down in his arms while the PM was about to leave.
#WATCH PM Narendra Modi hugged and consoled ISRO Chief K Sivan after he(Sivan) broke down. #Chandrayaan2 pic.twitter.com/bytNChtqNK
— ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2019
PM Modi while addressing the ISRO scientists later said, “Friends, I could feel what you were going through a few hours back, your eyes were conveying a lot. You live for India’s honour, I salute you. For the last few hours, the entire nation was worried. Everyone stands in solidarity with our scientists. We are proud of our space program. We will rise to the occasion and reach even newer heights of success. To our scientists I want to say- India is with you. You are exceptional professionals who have made an incredible contribution to national progress.”
Even though the contact is lost, the Chandrayaan orbiter is still intact and orbiting the moon. The space agency is still making efforts to analyse the data and find out the reasons behind the communication loss.
In a statement, ISRO chief K Sivan said that the Vikram lander lost contact with the ISRO Centre about 13 minutes after it began its descent. It was a little over two kilometres away from the moon’s surface. The Lander failed to bring down its speed from around 6,048 km per hour to 7 km per hour to make a soft-landing.
Once the command centre stopped receiving signals from the Lander, Sivan consulted with fellow scientists. He confirmed the loss of communication and said the data was being analysed.
According to an NDTV report, “Only 5 per cent of the mission has been lost – Vikram the lander and Pragyan the rover – while the remaining 95 per cent – that is the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter – is orbiting the moon successfully,” an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO told news agency IANS.
Nation Stands With ISRO
As the nation witnessed historic feat being just missed, consolations pour in on Twitter. Bollywood celebrities, academicians, historians, and several others stood in solidarity with the ISRO.
"When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team". A. P. J. Abdul Kalam on what he learnt about leadership from the great Satish Dhawan at ISRO:https://t.co/F0f4CIaQhI
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) September 7, 2019
It is a mission completed 95% and let us make it 100% next time. Thank you #ISRO and it’s Chairman #Sivan for making our nation proud. A nation of billion people is behind you in this journey.#Chandrayan2
— Kanimozhi (கனிமொழி) (@KanimozhiDMK) September 7, 2019
Sometimes we don’t land or arrive at the destination we want to. The important thing is we took off and had the Hope and Belief we can. Our current situation is never and not our final destination. That always comes in time and belief! Proud of #ISRO
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) September 7, 2019
There’s no science without experiment…sometimes we succeed, sometimes we learn. Salute to the brilliant minds of @isro, we are proud and confident #Chandrayaan2 will make way for #Chandrayaan3 soon. We will rise again.
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) September 7, 2019
2.1 kms short.
But still got 1.3 billion people closer than ever before ❤We stand by @isro and our scientists 🛰#Chandrayaan2 #ISRO
— YouTube India (@YouTubeIndia) September 7, 2019
