The Australian Space Agency on Saturday lauded ISRO’s effort of attempting a soft-landing of Vikram Lander of Chandrayaan 2 Mission. The agency in a tweet said that it applauds the commitment and efforts of ISRO to continue the journey into space. 

Apart from the Australian Space Agency, the UAE Space Agency had earlier offered full support following the loss of communication with Vikram Lander.

 

READ | Chandrayaan 2 | NASA hails ISRO: 'You inspired us, commend your work'

About Chandrayaan-2 mission

The Chandrayaan-2 mission took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on 22 July. After revolving around the Earth's orbit for nearly 23 days, the craft began its journey to the moon on 14 August. On September 2, successfully separated from Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter after which it was supposed to make the much-anticipated soft landing at scheduled 1.50 Am on Saturday. But in a bid to do so, the lander lost contact with the mission control room of ISRO.  

READ | Chandrayaan 2 | 'Vikram must have done a hard-landing': ISRO to PTI

The soft landing that was missed by a mere 2.1 km

Earlier on Saturday morning at 1:50 AM when Vikram Lander was scheduled to land, ISRO's Deep Space Antenna lost communication with Chandrayaan-2's lander- Vikram as it descended towards the lunar surface. The lander had descended from 30 km to 2km smoothly. During the final smooth braking stage, it had lost communication with Mission Control. Vikram Lander was aimed at soft-landing on the moon, making India the fourth country to do so. 

READ | Chandrayaan 2: 'Orbiter data will help global community': ISRO chief

Orbiter can still send crucial data

Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is still orbiting the polar regions of the moon, sending crucial data and high-resolution images which will help in mapping the lunar surface and will help future lunar explorations around the world. The orbiter's high-resolution camera imaging will create images with 32 cm higher resolution which can help us understand about water and ice even 10 meters below the moon's surface. 

READ | Chandrayaan 2 close to 100% success,' explains ISRO chief Dr K Sivan

(With inputs from agencies)