NEW DELHI: Chandrayaan-2 ’s Vikram lander, which had a “hard-landing” on Moon ’s surface in the wee hours of Saturday, is “intact and not broken”.

“The lander is there (on the lunar surface) as a single piece, not broken into pieces. It’s in a tilted position,” an Isro official associated with the moon mission claimed, PTI reports. Though the lander hit the surface hard while landing, it was still very close to the scheduled touchdown site as per the images sent by the orbiter’s onboard camera, he said. “We are making all-out efforts to see whether communication can be re-established with the lander. An Isro team is on the job at Isro Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network,” the PTI report quoted the official as saying.

However, another media report quoted the Isro chairman’s office as saying, “What PTI has published isn’t confirmed. We haven’t confirmed it as well.” The clarification said the space agency would provide an update as and when it had confirmation on Vikram’s fate.

A day before, Isro chairman K Sivan had said that Vikram lander was spotted and the image was taken by the orbiter high resolution camera. “At this moment, we don’t have any information about that yet. Also, we are still trying to re-establish a communication link.” He had said that even though the lander had made “hard-landing”, the mission had achieved 95% of its objectives.

He had told TOI that the orbiter was alive and kicking and that it was equipped with eight key payloads that would play a significant role in 3D mapping of Moon and finding minerals and water ice in the polar region of Moon. Isro is also mulling lowering the height of the orbiter circling in the 100km lunar orbit in order to zoom in on Moon better.



In Video: Making all out efforts to re-establish communication with lander 'Vikram': ISRO