The hope to re-establish the communication with Vikram lander is already over since the area where Indian Space and Research Organization has made a historic attempt of soft landing the lander Vikram has gone into the cold dark night. The premier space agency of United States NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has confirmed that the Vikram had a hard landing on the lunar surface.
NASA has tweeted high-resolution photos taken by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) during a lunar flyby on September 17. However, the LROC team has not been able to locate or capture any image of the lander so far but hopefully, the LROC will provide more information or might be the images of Vikram lander on its next flyby on October 14 when lighting conditions will be more favourable on the lunar surface.
The module had attempted a soft landing on a small patch of lunar highland smooth plains between Simpelius N and Manzinus C craters before losing communication with ISRO on September 7. The site was about 600 km from the south pole in a relatively ancient terrain, according to the US space agency.
“Our @LRO_NASA mission imaged the targeted landing site of India’s Chandrayaan-2 lander, Vikram. The images were taken at dusk, and the team was not able to locate the lander. More images will be taken in October during a flyby in favorable lighting.” US space agency said in a tweet.
Our @LRO_NASA mission imaged the targeted landing site of India’s Chandrayaan-2 lander, Vikram. The images were taken at dusk, and the team was not able to locate the lander. More images will be taken in October during a flyby in favorable lighting. More: https://t.co/1bMVGRKslp pic.twitter.com/kqTp3GkwuM
— NASA (@NASA) September 26, 2019
