Nation proud of ISRO's achievements, hopes of billions intact: VP Venkaiah Naidu

Hailing ISRO scientists for their dedication and hard work put into mission Chandrayaan 2, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said that the nation is proud of ISRO's achievements and the hopes of 1.3 billion Indians is still intact.

"There is nothing to despair. ISRO only lost communication with the Lander and not the hopes of 1.3 billion Indians. The Orbiter with its payloads is performing its mission," Naidu said in a tweet.

Naidu's response comes a few hours after the ISRO announced that communication from lander Vikram to ground stations was lost.

Extending good wishes to scientists for future endeavours, Naidu said: "I salute ISRO scientists, engineers and everyone else associated with Chandrayaan-2 for their hard work and dedication in trying to conquer new frontiers in space exploration."

"The nation is proud of ISRO's achievements," he added.

The space agency said in a tweet that Vikram Lander descent was as planned and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km.

"Subsequently, communication from Lander to the ground stations was lost. Data is being analyzed," it said.

In a bid to boost the morale of ISRO team, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the scientists to be courageous stating that ups and downs were a part of life.

The Vikram Lander successfully separated from Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter on September 2. The Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter continues to orbit the Moon in its existing orbit.

After revolving around the Earth's orbit for nearly 23 days, the craft began its journey to the moon on August 14. The mission took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 22.