Scaled down test for the safe landing of Chandrayaan-2 lander conducted successfully: ISRO 

Indian Space Research Organisation on October 26, Friday said it has successfully conducted a scaled-down test for the soft and safe landing of its Chandrayaan-2 lander for India's second Moon mission. The moon lander, Vikram, named after the father of Indian space programme Vikram Sarabhai, is crucial to carry out various tests on the moon surface.

"The scaled-down version of Chandrayaan-2 Lander Vikram completed, critical Lander Actuator Performance Test (LAPT) to demonstrate capabilities of navigation, guidance and control system of Vikram for a safe, soft and precise landing on the Moon," ISRO said in a release.

Earlier, ISRO revealed India's maiden interplanetary mission has completed four years orbiting the red planet.The mission is called the 'Mars Orbiter Mission' or MOM and was launched on November 5, 2013, and is the cheapest Mars mission costing around Rs 450 Crores

Read: India's Mars Probe Completes Four Years In Orbit: ISRO

The mission, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on November 5, 2013. The probe successfully placed itself into the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt.

Read: ISRO To Launch PSLV-C42 Carrying Two UK Satellites From Sriharikota. LIVE UPDATES And Stream Here

Although the designed mission life of MOM was six months, the satellite has continued to beam back science data from Mars for the past four years. "It's been 4 years since I am around! Thank you for your love and support," the ISRO's Mars Orbiter twitter handle said Tuesday. The tweet included an image taken by the orbiter of Olympus Mons -- the largest known volcano of the solar system.