Latest News

Vikram was scheduled to touch down on September. 7. This event was India's first attempt at a soft landing on the Moon Current affairs : NASA on Friday released high-resolution images captured by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) during its flyby of the lunar region where India's ambitious Chandrayaan 2 mission attempted a soft landing near the Moon's uncharted south pole, and found Vikram had a hard landing. The Vikram lander module attempted a soft landing on a small patch of lunar highland smooth plains between Simpelius N and Manzinus C craters before losing communication with ISRO on September 7. "Vikram had a hard landing and the precise location of the spacecraft in the lunar highlands has yet to be determined, NASA said. The scene was captured from a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera Quickmap fly-around of... read more

We should not be discouraged. India was trying to do something very very difficult, said NASA GSLV-MkIII-M1 rocket carrying Chandrayaan-2 lifts off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at Sriharikota in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh   Chandrayaan 2 : United States space agency NASA has said that the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) inspired it with Chandrayaan-2. The space NASA tweeted saying, "Space is hard. 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". Former NASA Astronaut Jerry Linenger said the lessons learned from India's “bold attempt” to soft land Chandrayaan-2's Vikram module on the lunar surface will help the country's future missions. Linenger, who flew on Russian space station Mir that operated in low Earth orbit between 1986 and 2001, took take part in the live tele...

Vikram, the lander, was lost when it was attempting a "soft" or controlled landing near the south pole of the moon An Isro official said the lander was in an upturned position and it could have been damaged   Chandrayaan 2 : Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Chief K Sivan said on Sunday Chandrayaan-2’s lander, the Vikram, had been located after the orbiter sent an image of the same but communication has not been established yet. Sivan said Vikram “must have had a hard-landing” on the lunar surface. “We are trying to have contact. It will be communicated soon,” he said. An official from the space agency said the lander was in an upturned position and it could have been damaged. Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has the highest resolution camera (0.3m) used in any lunar mission so far. It will provide high-resolution images, which will be immensely useful to the global scientific community. The space agency is trying to establish communication with lander Vikram, if ...

Conspiracy theories that claimed that the moon landing was faked and that it was all a Hollywood-like cinematic production shot on Earth have been doing the rounds for decades Chandrayaan 2 : Even fifty years after astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon, there are people who still insist that it never happened and that it was a hoax perpetrated by the US government. On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 Mission landed two men on the Moon. Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin piloted the lunar module, which detached from the spacecraft and landed on the Moon's surface. Their commander, Neil Armstrong, became the first man on the Moon. He passed away in 2012 at the age of 82. However, conspiracy theories that claimed that the moon landing was faked and that it was all a Hollywood-like cinematic production shot on Earth have been doing the rounds for... read more

'We will continue to try to establish contact for the next 14 days. Future programmes will go as planned', says K Sivan Chandrayaan 2 : After the moon landing mishap, K Sivan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) spoke to T E Narasimhan. Edited excerpts: What went wrong at the last minute? Of the four descent phases, the first three were successful. During the last phase, the link was lost and communication could not be established. Experts say the communication channel is on between the lander and the orbiter. We are trying to establish the link with the lander and will continue to try for the next 14 days. How did you locate the lander? The orbiter has clicked a thermal image of (the) lander but there is no communication yet. We are trying to have... read more

Chandrayaan 2, public sector bank mergers and climate change are the other topics opinion writers tackle on the opinion pages. Chandrayaan 2 is almost a metaphor for the Indian economy. The weekend’s disappointment over India’s first moonshot after a febrile build-up resembles the discontent over the anaemic economy after the huge expectations from Narendra Modi’s electoral comeback. On the economic front, the first 100 days of Modis’ second term saw growth slip to a 17-year low (in nominal terms), making the next 100 days are critical for the government to show that the India story is still alive, says the lead edit here. Chandrayaan 2, public sector bank mergers and climate change are the other topics opinion writers tackle on the opinion pages. Kanika Datta sums up the views Landing a craft on the moon has zero practical pay-off, says Ajay Shah. Instead, ISRO should take a leaf out of NASA’s copybook and focus on building the next level of knowledge through intelligent co...

Chandrayaan-2's 27-kg rover is a six-wheeled robotic vehicle named Pragyan, which translates to 'wisdom' in Sanskrit, and is housed inside the lander GSLV-MkIII-M1 rocket carrying Chandrayaan-2 lifts off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at Sriharikota in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh    Chandrayaan-2 : ISRO is continuing its efforts to restore link with Chandrayaan-2's lander 'Vikram', but experts say time is running out and possibility of re-establishing communication looks "less and less probable." Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation K Sivan said on Saturday that the space agency will try to establish link with the lander for 14 days. After lander Vikram was located on the lunar surface by Chandrayaan-2's on-board cameras on Sunday, he reiterated that those efforts would continue. A senior official associated with the mission said, "Progressively... as time goes by... it's difficult(to establish link)....