After Chandrayaan, focus now on sending Indians to space: Isro

THE SPACE AGENCY COULD NOT ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH VIKRAM, THE CHANDRAYAAN-2 LANDER, ISRO CHIEF K SIVAN SAID

BHUBANESWAR: Mission Gaganyaan – India’s manned mission to space -- is our next priority, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman K Sivan said on Saturday, adding that lunar mission Chandrayaan-2, had achieved 98% of its objectives.

The country is moving ahead to meet its target of sending man to space by December 2021, Sivan said.

He added that although Isro’s attempt to land Chandrayaan-2’s ‘Vikram’ module on the lunar surface did not go according to the plan, it will have no bearing with on the Gaganyaan’mission.

On September 7, Chandrayaan’s lander – Vikram -- with rover Pragyan, lost contact with the ground station during its final descent, just 2.1km above the lunar surface, minutes before the planned soft touchdown on the Moon.

“There are 8 instruments in the orbiter and each instrument is doing exactly what it meant to do. Regarding the lander, we have not been able to establish communication with it. Our next priority is Gaganyaan mission,” he said in Bhubaneswar.

The Isro chief said that the agency was trying to set the target of achieving the Gaganyaan mission. “For this, we are working on different options,” he added.

“By December 2021, the first Indian will be carried by our own rocket ... This is the target Isro is working for,” he said amid loud clapping by the audience.

The Isro chairman was in the city to attend the 8th Convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bhubaneswar.

Addressing students on the lunar mission, he said that the scientists are trying to analyse the lapses to know what exactly went wrong with the lander.

“We could not have established any communication with the lander yet. The project was developed in two parts -- science and technology demonstration. We achieved total success in science objective while in technology demonstration, the success percentage was almost full. That’s why the project can be termed as 98% successful,” Sivan said.

“The orbiter was initially planned for a year, but with the optimum mission planning there