Chandrayaan 2: Brad Pitt asks ISS if it saw India's Moon lander

Making a call to International Space Station (ISS), Hollywood actor Brad Pitt on Monday asked if the ISS astronauts have spotted India's Moon lander Vikram. Pitt on Monday spoke to NASA astronaut Nick Hague and asked him about India's moon mission. His 17 minutes-long conversation with Hague (who is currently at the ISS) was telecast by NASA TV. During his conversation, Pitt at 4:52 minutes asked: "I went to JPL last week, it was on the day India was landing on the Moon..Could you see that from where you are?" Responding to his question, Hague said that he was unable to see the Chandrayaan 2. He lauded India's effort to reach the lunar surface and highlighted the importance of international cooperation. He said: "Space is hard." Brad Pitt's call to the ISS is a part of a promotional tour for his upcoming movie 'Ad Astra', in which he is playing an astronaut sent on a dangerous mission at the edge of the solar system. 

READ: NASA Deep Space Network continuously beaming at ISRO's Vikram Lander

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READ: NASA to try to capture ISRO's Vikram Lander on camera on Lunar surface

NASA helping ISRO in locating Vikram Lander

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Friday said that it is sending radio signals to Vikram Lander. As shared by Astronaut Scott in a series of tweets, NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) has been beaming radio frequency to Vikram Lander. ISRO too is constantly trying to establish communication with Vikram through its Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu near Bengaluru. Apart from this, NASA has said that it will share 'any before and after flyover imagery' of the Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander landing site, as per international reports.  According to reports, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled to pass over the Vikram Lander's landing site on September 17. ISRO has not released any photos of Vikram as of Tuesday. Meanwhile, on Thursday, officials of the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) visited ISRO's Bengaluru headquarters, according to PTI.

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Vikram Lander tilted but in single piece

Earlier, ISRO had told news agency PTI that Vikram lander is in a single piece. "It had a hard-landing very close to the planned (touch-down) site as per the images sent by the on-board camera of the orbiter. The lander is there as a single piece, not broken into pieces. It's in a tilted position," an ISRO official associated with the mission claimed to PTI."We are making all-out efforts to see whether communication can be re-established with the lander," the official said.  "An ISRO team is the on the job at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC)," they added. Moments before the landing on the lunar surface, the Vikram lander lost communication. 

READ: ISRO: Vikram lander located by Chandrayaan-2's orbiter, all efforts on