India's space programme suffered a setback on Saturday after it lost contact with an unmanned spacecraft moments before it was due to make a historic soft landing on the Moon.

India had hoped to become just the fourth country after the United States, Russia and regional rival China to make a successful Moon landing, and the first on the lunar South Pole.

But in the early hours of Saturday India time, as Modi looked on and millions watched with bated breath nationwide, Vikram, the lander named after the father of India's space programme, went silent just 2.1 kilometres above the lunar surface.

Pakistan's Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry took a jibe at the failed mission:

PTI Senator, Faisal Javed and DG ISPR Asif Ghafoor also weighed in:

However, it's ironic that we are celebrating when we aren't experts in the field either:

People on Twitter were quick to point out that this is not something we should be mocking:

Let's focus on the issues we're dealing with in our backyard rather than ridiculing scientific advancements: