Former ISRO Director says Vikram lander may not have crash-landed on the moon

Former ISRO Director D Sasikumar on Saturday said that the communication loss with “Vikram” lander may not have been due to crash-landing. “We have to find out from the communication data whether it is a soft landing or it is a crash landing. In my opinion, it is not a crash landing because the communication channel is on between the lander and the orbiter. It should be intact. So, let us hope after the analysis done, we may be able to get the final figure,” he said while talking to ANI. [caption id=“attachment_7298251” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Illustration of Vikram lander. Image: ISRO.[/caption] The communication data which is missing is being analysed now, he said. Earlier, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a tweet, “normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km. Subsequently, communication from Lander to the ground stations was lost. Data is being analyzed.” The Vikram Lander successfully separated from Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter on September 2. The Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter continues to orbit the Moon. The Vikram lander was planned to land on the far side of the moon between 1:30 am to 2:30 am on the intervening night of Friday-Saturday. This would have been followed by rover (Pragyan) roll-out between 5:30 am to 6:30 am. After revolving around the Earth’s orbit for nearly 23 days, the craft began its journey to the moon on August 14. The mission took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 22. India’s second mission to the moon was approved by the cabinet on September 2008, just before the launch of Chandrayaan 1.