The Vikram lander of the Chandrayaan-2 failed to make a smooth soft-landing, unable to bring down its speed to the required level. The mission operations complex at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bengaluru stopped receiving data from the lander.
“The descent of Vikram was going on as per plan, and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of at 2.1 km. Subsequently, communication from the lander to the ground station was lost. Data being analysed,” ISRO chairman K Sivan said.
Here is a timeline of Chandrayaan-2’s journey:
July 15
Just under an hour before liftoff, the Chandrayaan-2 mission was aborted at 02.51 hours after a technical snag was detected in the GSLV-MkIII rocket. The countdown to the launch was stopped at 56 minutes ahead of the scheduled time after scientists detected a problem in the rocket.
In a statement, a senior ISRO official said, “A technical snag was observed in launch vehicle system at one hour before the launch. As a measure of abundant precaution Chandrayaan-2 launch has been called off for today. The revised launch date will be announced later.”
* July 22
This time the Chandrayaan-2 launch went off without any hitch, a week after it was aborted 56 minutes before liftoff due to a technical snag. The textbook launch became successful as the spacecraft crossed Earth’s escape velocity in 16 minutes 23 seconds. It had been deposited in an earth orbit by the 640-tonne GSLV Mk-III which, after burning its successive stages, separated itself completely from the spacecraft.
* July 24
Chandrayaan-2 performed its first earth-bound orbit manoeuvre at 14.52 hours.
* July 26
Chandrayaan-2 performed its second earth-bound manoeuvre.
* July 29
Chandrayaan-2 performed its third earth-bound manoeuvre.
August 2
Chandrayaan-2 performed its fourth earth-bound manoeuvre.
* August 6
Chandrayaan-2 performed its fifth earth-bound manoeuvre.
* August 20
Chandrayaan-2 successfully completed the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) manoeuvre. The orbit achieved was 114 km x 18072 km. The spacecraft has been injected into an elliptical orbit that is 114 km away from the moon’s surface at its nearest point and 18,072 km at its farthest.
* August 21
Chandrayaan-2 successfully completed the second Lunar Orbit Maneuver. Chandrayaan-2 moved into an elliptical orbit that, at its nearest point from the Moon, was 118 km from the lunar surface, and 4,412 km at its farthest.
* August 28
Chandrayaan-2 successfully completed the third Lunar Orbit Maneuver
* August 30
Chandrayaan-2 successfully completed the fourth Lunar Orbit Maneuver. The spacecraft has reached into an orbit that is 124 km from the lunar surface at its nearest point, and 164 km at the farthest.
* September 1
Chandrayaan-2 successfully completed fifth and final Lunar Orbit Maneuver. The spacecraft reached into an orbit 119 km from the lunar surface at its nearest point, and 127 km at the farthest.
* September 2
Vikram, the lander module of Chandrayaan-2, detached itself from the main spacecraft and started orbiting the moon independently, preparing itself for the descent to the lunar surface.
* September 3
The Vikram lander of the Chandrayaan-2 mission moved away from the main spacecraft and closer to the Moon, lowering itself into an orbit that was 104 km from the lunar surface at the nearest point and 128 km at the furthest.
* September 4
The Vikram Lander of the Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully carried out the second de-orbiting manoeuvre. “With this manoeuvre, the required orbit for the Vikram Lander to commence its descent towards the surface of the Moon is achieved,” ISRO said in a statement.
September 7
Chandrayaan 2’s Moon lander ‘Vikram’ with rover ‘Pragyaan’ touched down on the South Polar region of the Moon at 2.30 am. The crucial landing of ‘Vikram’ was carried out by at least eight onboard equipment in a coordinated manner.
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