Chandrayaan-2: ‘Space is hard, you have inspired us,’ NASA commends ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-2 mission to the Moon failed in its objective to achieve a soft-landing on the lunar surface as the lander, VIkram, lost contact with the control room in the early hours of Saturday. Nevertheless, the world’s premier space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has lauded ISRO’s effort.

NASA, which remains the only agency in the world to have successfully landed a man on the Moon, in a congratulatory tweet said that ISRO’s effort has “inspired us.”

“Space is hard,” NASA tweeted. “We commend @ISRO’s attempt to land their #Chandrayaan2 mission on the Moon’s South Pole. You have inspired us with your journey and look forward to future opportunities to explore our solar system together.”

Soft-landing may have been a failure, but former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair on Saturday said that 95 percent of the mission’s objective has been achieved.

"I think we need not worry too much...I will rate more than 95 percent of the mission objectives have been achieved," Nair was quoted as saying by PTI. "Already, orbiter is in space and it should do an excellent job of mapping", he added.

While ISRO director K Sivan said that the mission has ensured the world will be accessing information from the polar region of the moon for the first time in history.

"The first phases of the power descent was executed properly. It was in the last phase that we lost communication with the lander. The payload in the orbiter is going to give us a lot of data over the next few years...we were successful with our scientific mission but it is the technology demonstration where we failed," Sivan said.

Further, the ISRO chief said, "The planned life of the orbiter, placed around the moon, has been enhanced to seven years as compared to a year as estimated earlier."

“For the first time, we will be getting data from the polar region of the moon...the world will be accessing this information for the first time ever,” he added.

"No other project will be delayed. We will be going ahead with Carto Sat project by end of October. We are on course for completion of all our other projects including Gaganyaan, which will commence by end of 2020," Sivan said.