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ISRO lose contact with Chandrayaan-2 lander during final descent
Following a historic July 22 launch on a GSLV Mk-III rocket from the east coast of India, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft – the robotic lander and rover, specifically – attempted a soft landing on the surface of the Moon on Friday. All was proceeding to plan until just 2km above the surface when telemetry was lost and the vehicle will have likely crashed into the lunar surface.
[...] The Vikram lander was aiming to softly touch down about 350 kilometers (218 miles) away from the South Pole-Aitken Basin rim on Friday evening. However, with all proceeding to plan, including the braking phase of the mission ahead of final descent, telemetry was lost.
[...] Although no explanation was provided, it is clear the mission has failed.
Also at NYT and India Today.
Previously: Chandrayaan-2 Updates: Lunar Orbit Insertion and Lunar Orbit Maneuver
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 08 2019, @05:17AM
Early U.S. and Soviet Moon landing attempts ended in failure. North Korea can't get missiles or nukes to work properly on the first try. India can't nail its first Moon landing attempt.
The lesson is that trial and error is still needed for newcomers even if the pioneers have already shown how to do it.