---
title: "Breaking: India Has Lost Communication With Lunar Lander"
description: "News emerged that India's Vikram lunar lander perished early Saturday morning India time near the Moon's South Pole."
date: "2019-09-06"
modified: "2019-09-06"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/india-lost-communication-lunar-lander"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "chandrayaan-2"
  - "india"
  - "lunar lander"
  - "the digest"
---

# Breaking: India Has Lost Communication With Lunar Lander

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/india-makes-history-and-lands-spacecraft-on-the-moon.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: ISRO\</em\>*

## Heartbreak

At first, everything was going according to plan.

India was set to become the fourth country after the U.S., the USSR, and China to softly land a manmade object on the Moon. But then the team at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) lost all communications with its Vikram lunar lander at an altitude of 2.1 kilometers.

The ISRO has yet to confirm if the lander has crashed or not. The lander was part of India's space agency's [Chandrayaan-2](<https://futurism.com/tags/chandrayaan-2>) mission.

https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1170069604200275968

## What Happened?

At first the spacecraft barely deviated from its planned trajectory. But then, minutes away from landing, the lander went off from its path.

"Space, as ever, is hard," [tweeted](<https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1170070590839037952>) Eric Berger, Senior Space Editor at *Ars Technica*. "Really, really hard."

The lander, with an orbiter and a rover called Pragyaan in tow, launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on July 15.

The six-wheeled rover was set to eventually emerge from the belly of the Vikram lander and make its way across a much less studied region of the Moon — but only for a single lunar day of 14 Earth days — to perform chemical analyses of the lunar soil.

The news comes after Israel [crashed](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/beresheet-lunar-lander-crashed>) its lunar lander into the Moon in April.

**READ MORE:** [Watch Live as India Attempts to Land Its Vikram Probe on the Moon](<https://gizmodo.com/watch-live-as-india-attempts-to-land-its-vikram-probe-o-1837932222>) \[*Engadget*\]

**More on landing on the Moon:** *[After Failed Moon Landing, Israel Vows to Try Again](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/failed-moon-landing-israel-beresheet-2>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)