What's Happening With Vikram Lander? ISRO Tweets Status Update On Chandrayaan-2 Mission

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is still making all possible efforts to establish communication with Vikram lander that hard landed on the moon, the space agency tweeted on Tuesday.

"Vikram Lander has been located by the orbiter of #Chandrayaan2, but no communication with it yet," the official Isro handle tweeted on Tuesday. It said the agency was making all possible efforts to establish communication with the lander. The mission life of the lander is 14 days i.e. one lunar day, which means ISRO has 11 more days to keep trying.

#VikramLander has been located by the orbiter of #Chandrayaan2, but no communication with it yet.

All possible efforts are being made to establish communication with lander.#ISRO

— ISRO (@isro) September 10, 2019

ISRO Chairman K Sivan had said on Saturday that the space agency would try to restore link with the lander for 14 days, and reiterated the resolve on Sunday after the orbiter's camera spotted it on the Lunar surface.

Vikram, with rover 'Pragyan' housed inside it, hit the lunar surface after communication with the ground-stations was lost during its final descent, just 2.1 km above the lunar surface, in the early hours of Saturday.

"We are making all-out efforts to see whether communication can be re-established with the lander," another ISRO official told PTI. "An ISRO team is the on the job at ISROTelemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC)."

The mission life of the lander and rover is one Lunar day, which is equal to 14 earth days. The chances of getting Vikram back are dim but not totally bleak. The good news for ISRO is that the lander is intact even after a hard landing.

"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 on Monday.