Pulse

oi-Deepannita Das

on September 7, 2019

It was a sleepless night for Indians! The whole nation had its eyes fixed on the screens and waited in anticipation for the Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander, which was scheduled for its soft landing near the south pole of the Moon at around 1:40 am on Saturday, 7 September.

Around 2:15 am, ISRO Chief, K Sivan confirmed that India’s space organisation’s contact with the lander was lost.

ISRO officials issued a statement that said, “Vikram lander descent was as planned. Normal performance was observed up to 2.1 km. Subsequently communication was lost. Data is being analysed. Planned press conference is called off.”

Even though there was a landing setback and the nation’s moon mission didn’t go as expected, it will be so wrong to tag ISRO’s mission as a failure.

Chandrayaan 2 orbiter has a life span of one year and therefore, it will remain active and study the Moon from a distance. It can very well capture the pictures and send them back to ISRO.

We still don’t know what went wrong, but certainly, it is time for us to stand with ISRO and its sleepless scientists.

Watch Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the nation from ISRO Control Centre at Bengaluru today, 7 September at 8 am.

How the nation reacted on Twitter-

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”

“To each and every person at ISRO who gave their everything into this mission. WE ARE PROUD OF YOU AND WE ALWAYS GOT YOUR BACK!”

“ISRO did a great job and we are proud of our brilliant brigade of Scientists. They did what others couldn’t even attempt. We touched the sky and we touched the moon. It’s a big achievement..Thank you ISRO and Narendra Modi.”

This tweet was in Hindi, which translates in English as- “We have successfully completed 3,84,398 KM in 47 days and the connection was lost when (Vikram lander) was 2 km away from the moon, this is a big achievement for us Indians.”

“There are ups and downs in life. This is not a small achievement. The nation is proud of you. Hope for the best. I congratulate you. You all have done a big service to nation, science and mankind. I am with you all the way, move forward bravely.”

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