PM Narendra Modi to address nation from ISRO Control Centre in Bengaluru on Saturday

IANS Photo

Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address the nation from  Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Control Centre on Saturday morning, after ISRO lost contact with Chandrayaan-2's Vikram Lander.

The PM Will address the nation at around 8 am on Saturday, ISRO informed. "Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation from ISRO Control Centre today (September 07, 2019) at 0800 hrs IST," ISRO said in a tweet.

#ISRO
Honorable Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi will address the nation from ISRO Control Centre today (September 07, 2019) at 0800 hrs IST.@PMOIndia @narendramodi — ISRO (@isro) September 6, 2019

Chandrayaan-2's Vikram Lander was just 2.1 kilometres away from making history when it lost contact with the ISRO's Mission Control Centre. The descent progressed smoothly for 13 minutes before Vikram started to deviate from its planned path and about 12 seconds before the touch down on Moon's surface. The contact lost was confirmed by ISRO Chairman K Sivan. 

Following this, Deviprasad Karnik, a scientist at ISRO said that data is being analysed and ISRO does not have any result yet. Karnik added that it takes time to analyse the data and ISRO is not sure about the fate of Vikram Lander.

PM Narendra Modi after being briefed about the current status of after Vikram Lander, praised ISRO scientists and said that life is full of ups and downs. He lauded the scientists for their efforts and said that Chandrayaan-2 was not a small achievement. He added that the nation is proud of ISRO and asked the space scientists to remain courageous. He also congratulated the scientists and said that they have done a big service to nation, science and mankind. 

PM Modi was present at the space agency's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bengaluru to watch the spacecraft's progress.

Chandrayaan-2 was India’s first attempt at landing a spacecraft on the moon. Before India, only the USA, Russia and China have managed to place a spacecraft on Moon so far. Chandrayaan-2 was scheduled to land at the south polar region if the moon, a place where no one else has ever gone before.  The mission took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 22. After revolving around the earth's orbit for nearly 23 days, Chandrayaan-2 began its journey to the moon on August 14.