Chandrayaan-2: Will try to establish connection with Vikram lander for next 14 days, says ISRO chief K Sivan

Hours after Chandrayaan-2's landing on the south pole of the moon didn't go as it was planned following which ISRO lost contact with its Vikram lander, chairman K Sivan on Saturday said that they will keep trying to establish a connection with the lander for the next 14 days.

"Right now the communication with Vikram lander is lost, we will try to establish a link for the next 14 days. The last portion was not executed the right way, in that phase only we lost link with the Lander, and could not establish communication subsequently," Sivan said.

"The designated life term of the orbiter was only one year. But because we have extra fuel right now available in the orbiter, so the orbiter life is estimated as seven and a half years," K Sivan said.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief, K Sivan: The designated life term of the Orbiter was only one year. But because we have extra fuel right now available in the Orbiter, so the Orbiter life is estimated as 7.5 years. (Courtesy: DD) #Chandrayaan2Landing pic.twitter.com/R5rhXwXxhE
— ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2019

"The success criteria was defined for each and every phase of the mission and till date 90 to 95% of the mission objectives have been accomplished and will continue contribute to Lunar science, notwithstanding the loss of communication with the Lander," he added.

Hailing the support from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was present at the time of launch, K Sivan, "He is a source of inspiration and support for us. His speech gave us motivation. In his speech, the special phrase that I noted was, "Science should not be looked for results, but for experiments & experiments will lead to results."