ISRO working on plans for future moon mission

Ahmedabad : ISRO Chairman K Sivan on Thursday said a plan is being worked out for moon mission in future, after Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-2 had a hard landing.

He said the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2 is doing "very well" and all the payload operations have commenced.

Asked if the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has a similar plan after Chandrayaan-2 lander's hard landing, Sivan said, "We are working out a detailed future plan."

"A national level committee has been formed to find out what went wrong with (Vikram) lander. Once the committee submits its report, we will work on what to do in future," he told reporters at the city airport.

Also, necessary approvals and all procedures have to be finished before making the announcement, he said.

Asked for an update on Chandrayaan-2, he said, "The orbiter is doing very well and all the payload operations have commenced. We have not received any signal from the lander."

He said the country's space agency has a series of missions lined up in coming months and years. "The most important mission for us is 'Gaganyaan', the manned mission to the space. ISRO is working very hard on it," he said.

Gaganyaan, scheduled to be launched in 2022, aims to send three astronauts to space and bring them back safely. "As per the prime minister's announcement, we have to achieve this success by 2022," Sivan said.

Chandrayaan-2 lander Vikram lost contact with the ISRO base during its landing on the lunar surface on September 7. Later, Sivan said it had hard landing.

Chandrayaan-2 comprised an orbiter, lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan). Sivan was here to participate in a national conference on 'System for Transforming India'.