India's Moon lander, which lost contact with scientists seconds before it was to touch down on the lunar surface, is yet to be located. But scientists tell BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi why the ambitious mission cannot be dismissed as a failure.
Millions of Indians watched the Vikram Moon lander's final heart-stopping descent in the early hours of 7 September – its progress was beamed across television screens and social media accounts.
But during the final stage – known as the “hovering” stage – a problem occurred. The lander was about 2.1km (1.3 miles) from the lunar surface when it lost contact with scientists, dashing hopes that India would become only the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon.
Since then, the US space agency Nasa has said the lander made a “hard landing”. New pictures from a Nasa spacecraft show the targeted landing site – but they were taken at dusk, and unable to locate the lander.
Chandrayaan-2 was the most complex mission ever attempted by India's space agency, Isro. Its chairman K Sivan – who had earlier described the final descent as “15 minutes of terror” – has since said the mission was “98% successful”, based on the…
