india

Updated: Sep 07, 2019 14:20 IST

The Indian Space Research Organisation will stay the course to realise India’s dream to reach the moon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in Mumbai soon after wrapping up his visit to the Isro facility in Bengaluru for the lunar mission Chandrayaan-2. Vikram lander, the unmanned spacecraft named after father Vikram A Sarabai, the father of India’s space programme, was due to land on the moon on Saturday.

But communication with Chandrayaan 2, which had covered a distance of 380,000 km to the moon since its launch on July 22, snapped when the Vikram lander was just 2.1 km short of the lunar surface. Before leaving the Isro facility this morning, PM Modi delivered a televised address that showered praise on Isro scientists for their hard work and commitment.

He also stressed that the journey and the effort that the scientists had put in was no less important than the final result. “I can proudly say that the effort was worth it and so was the journey,” the Prime Minister told them.

PM Modi carried that message to Mumbai as well when he landed in the financial capital a few hours later to a metro event at Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex.

“We will realise our dream to reach the moon,” PM Modi told his audience at the metro project.

The prime minister had started his Mumbai speech, talking about three kinds of people and the Isro connection.

One, who don’t take up a project due to fear of failure; second, who do start the work but drop it at the first sign of trouble. The third category of people stay on course till they achieve their objective.

“Isro and the people who work with them fall under the third category. They will not stop trying till they realise their objective,” he said, pointing to the “hurdle” that Isro had faced in the moon mission earlier in the morning.

“The scientists at Isro will not stop till they reach their objective,” he said.

PM Modi also reminded people that the moon mission - despite the setback earlier this morning -- hadn’t been without its own set of achievements. “We have to remember that orbiter is still there... This is also a historic achievement,” he said.

The 1,471-kg lander of Chandrayaan-2, which appears to have moved towards the moon surface at a speed higher than expected.

Only the United States, Russia and China have landed on the moon. Beijing’s Chang’e-4 probe touched down on the far side earlier this year. Israel made an unsuccessful attempt to land its Beresheet spacecraft on the moon in April.

The south pole is believed to contain water as craters in the region are largely unaffected by the high temperatures of the sun. ISRO had hoped to confirm the presence of water in the form of ice, first detected on its mission in 2008, according to news agency Reuters