New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Indians for coming together in one spirit during the moon landing calling it the 'ISRO spirit'. PM Modi made these comments while addressing a rally in Haryana's Rohtak on Sunday. Talking about the India's attempt at soft-landing on the moon, PM Modi recalled how the whole country was watching it. He added that the whole nation came together as the ground control lost contact with the Vikram lander.
He said, "At 1:50 am on September 7, entire nation was sitting in front of their televisions looking at Chandrayaan mission. In those 100 seconds, I witnessed how an incident awakened the entire country and it together. Just like sportsman spirit, it's ISRO spirit in Hindustan now."
India's mission to soft-land on moon suffered a setback during the wee hours on Saturday, with Chandrayaan-2s Vikram module losing communication with ground stations, just 2.1 km from the lunar surface during its final descent. The Vikram Lander followed the planned descent trajectory from its orbit of 35 km to just below 2 km above the surface.
On Sunday, in a big breakthrough, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter located Vikram Lander on lunar surface taking thermal images. However, contact is yet to be established with the lander.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present at ISRO headquarters during the launch attempt.
PM Modi has vehemently defended the mission and lauded the effort of the scientists at ISRO. Addressing a press conference, PM Modi had said, "We are full of confidence that when it comes to our space program, the best is yet to come, there are new frontiers to discover and new places to go to, we will rise to the occasion and scale newer heights of success."
A video also went viral which showed PM Modi consoling and hugging ISRO chief K Sivan, who seemed to be fighting back tears.
