India loses contact with Vikram probe in moon landing attempt
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}India lost contact with its unmanned Vikram probe during the final moments of its audacious attempt to land on the moon on Friday.
Communication with the lander was lost when it was just 1.3 miles from the lunar surface. "Communications from lander to ground station was lost," said K Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization. "The data is being analyzed."
It is not clear if the mission had failed. "We don't have any result yet," said an ISRO spokesman.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}INDIA LAUNCHES HISTORIC MISSION TO THE MOON
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also at ISRO Mission Control in Bangalore. "India is proud of our scientists! They’ve given their best and have always made India proud. These are moments to be courageous, and courageous we will be!" he tweeted.
Earlier this year, Israel's uncrewed Beresheet spacecraft crashed during a Moon landing attempt.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Artist's impression of Chandrayaan-2 from ISRO video. (ISRO)
The roughly $140 million mission, known as Chandrayaan-2, is intended to study permanently shadowed moon craters that are thought to contain water deposits that were confirmed by the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008.
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The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft carrying the Vikram Lander launched from Sriharikota in southern India on July 22.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Only the U.S., Russia and China have successfully landed on the Moon.
Members of the media at the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) facility in Bangalore, on September 6, 2019. (MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Indian space hardware has reached the moon before, although the country has yet to achieve a “soft landing” on the lunar surface.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}India's first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, orbited the moon in 2008 but did not land there. It did, however, launch an impact probe that was intentionally crashed into the Moon.
Chandrayaan-1 operated for 312 days.
The moon looms large for a number of countries’ space programs. China, for example, became the first country to successfully land a probe on the far side earlier this year when the Chang’e 4 lander reached the lunar surface on Jan. 2.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}However, the unmanned Israeli Beresheet spacecraft crashed when it attempted to make a lunar landing on April 11. It was just a few hundred feet above the surface when Mission Control in Yehud, Israel, lost contact with the probe.
A preliminary investigation found that a manual command caused the crash.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The U.S. also has its sights set on the celestial satellite and plans to land American astronauts, including the first woman, by 2024. The Artemis program will also establish a sustainable human presence.
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NASA recently revealed details of its vision for the Artemis Moon Lander.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Speaking at Kennedy Space Center on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Orion capsule that will take American astronauts back to the satellite is ready.
Since Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the surface, only 10 more men, all Americans, have walked there.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}At a White House event in July Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin voiced his disappointment over America’s space progress since the days of Apollo 11.
Fox News’ Chris Ciaccia, Morgan Cheung and The Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers