--- title: "Indian Official: Moon Lander May Have Survived in One Piece" description: "Establishing Contact India lost all communications with its Vikram lunar lander only 2 kilometers from its intended landing site. Since then, officials at India’s Space Research Organization (ISRO) have been hard at work trying to reestablish a connection — despite its minuscule changes of survival. Earlier this week, scientists located the lander using the orbiter […]" date: "2019-09-11" modified: "2019-09-11" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/indian-official-moon-lander-survived" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Moon" - "Space" tags: - "india" - "lunar lander" - "NASA" - "the digest" --- # Indian Official: Moon Lander May Have Survived in One Piece ![An Indian newspaper quoted an ISRO official as saying that the country's lunar lander landed in one piece. The report has yet to be confirmed.]() *\Image: ISRO\* ## Fender Bender On Friday, India [lost all communication]() with its Vikram lunar lander just two kilometers from its intended touchdown site. Since then, India's Space Research Organization (ISRO) has been hard at work trying to [reestablish a connection]() with the lost probe, despite its minuscule changes of survival. And now, if yet-to-be confirmed reports by the Indian media are anything to go by, there's a sliver of hope that Vikram may have survived its descent. "The lander is there \[on the moon\] as a single piece, not broken into pieces," an unnamed ISRO official told Indian newspaper *The Hindu,* in a claim the *New York Times* was [unable to confirm](). "It’s in a tilted position." ## Leg Up The ISRO — which hasn't commented on the apparent leak — is getting help from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will be passing over the site of the crash on September 17. "NASA will share any before and after flyover imagery of the area around the targeted Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander landing site to support analysis by the Indian Space Research Organization," a NASA spokesman said in an email to the *Times*. Despite that assist, the *NYT* points out, there's no precedent in the history of space travel for reestablishing contact with a lander after a total loss of comms. **READ MORE:** [Did India’s Chandrayaan-2 Moon Lander Survive? The Chances Are Slim]() \[*The New York Times*\] **More on Vikram:** *[India Finds Lost Moon Lander, Tries to Establish Contact]()* ## 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]()