Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Saturday morning seen consoling ISRO chief K. Sivan after the latter broke down in front of the PM following Chandrayaan-2's failed soft landing on the moon. Cameras captured as PM Modi hugged and consoled an emotional Sivan at ISRO's Bengaluru headquarters on Saturday morning, hours after the ground stations lost contact with the lander during its powered descent to the Lunar surface, just minutes before the planned touch-down.
While the ISRO was still analysing the data, a senior official hinted that the connection was lost completely. "There is no communication with the lander. It's as good as lost. There is no hope. Very, very difficult to re-establish contact," PTI cited the official as saying.
Addressing the scientists hours after ISRO announced that it had lost communication with the lander, PM Modi said that the country's determination to land on the moon has become even stronger.
Modi had earlier watched the proceedings as the lander began its descent towards the moon surface at an ISRO centre in Bengaluru.
The lander was designed to execute a soft landing on the lunar surface, and to function for one lunar day, which is equivalent to about 14 earth days.
Chandrayaan-2's 27-kg rover is a six-wheeled robotic vehicle named Pragyan, which translates to 'wisdom' in Sanskrit.
It's designed to travel up to 500 metres from the landing spot on the Moon and leverage solar energy for its functioning.
The lander carried three scientific payloads to conduct surface and subsurface science experiments, while the rover carried two payloads to enhance our understanding of the lunar surface, according to ISRO.
The mission life of the orbiter will be one year while that of the rover was to be one lunar day which is equal to 14 earth days.
(With PTI inputs)