'We Had Already Located Vikram Lander,' Says ISRO Chief K Sivan On NASA's Claim

“We had already declared that on our website, you can go back and see,” Sivan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Image: PTI/ File

New Delhi: Responding to the finding of the debris of Vikram Lander of Chandrayaan-2 as claimed by NASA, Indian Space and Research Organisation chief, K Sivan said on Tuesday that their orbiter had already located the lander, before NASA did. “We had already declared that on our website, you can go back and see,” Sivan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. On Tuesday, said that, Vikram lander, which crash-landed on the surface of the Moon in September has been discovered and, credited a Chennai-based mechanical engineer for helping it trace the debris of India’s lunar mission by comparing before and after images of the landing site. NASA's confirmation came nearly three months after India's Chandrayaan-2 mission made a hard landing near the uncharted lunar south pole in the wee hours of September 7. "The Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander has been found by our NASA Moon mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. See the first mosaic of the impact site," NASA said in a tweet sharing before and after images captured by its moon-revolving Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

The #Chandrayaan2 Vikram lander has been found by our @NASAMoon mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. See the first mosaic of the impact site https://t.co/GA3JspCNuh pic.twitter.com/jaW5a63sAf

— NASA (@NASA) December 2, 2019

On September 7, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) attempted a soft landing of Vikram on the Moon. However, ISRO lost contact with Vikram shortly before the scheduled touchdown.