Indian Moon Mission's Lander lies on Lunar surface in one piece: ISRO

NEW DELHI - An official at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday said that the Lander "Vikram" of the country's second Moon Mission, Chandrayaan-2, was in a "single piece and lying in a tilted position," local media reported.

The fresh image of the crash-landed Lander was said to have been obtained by the Orbiter which continues to be in a perfect condition.

"It had a hard-landing very close to the planned 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," media reports quoted an ISRO official associated with the Mission as saying.

The official, whose name was not disclosed, also stated: "We're making all-out efforts to see whether communication can be re-established with the Lander."

The life of the Lander and the Rover is one Lunar day, which is equal to 14 Earth days.

Launched on July 22, India's second Moon Mission comprised of an Orbiter, Lander "Vikram" and Rover "Pragyan."

ISRO Chairman K. Sivan on Sunday said a thermal image of the Lander was obtained but no connection could be established with it so far.

Media reports quoted another ISRO official as saying on Monday that communication with the Lander could be restored only if it had a soft landing and if all its systems functioned.

"We have experience of recovering a spacecraft, which had lost contact, in geostationary orbit. But in the case of 'Vikram,' that kind of operational flexibility is not there. Already it's lying on the surface of the Moon and we cannot reorient it," the official said.

The soft-landing of Chandrayaan-2's landing module Vikram did not go according to plan as all ground communication was lost with it just moments before the scheduled landing late on Sept 7.

The landing began minutes before 1:40 am (Indian Standard Time) on Saturday, and then things went awry around 12 minutes after Vikram began its descent.