US successfully sent spacecraft to moon in 39th attempt due to

The USA had succeeded in their 39th attempt to send their spacecraft to the moon because they had launched it on 'Ekadashi' day as per the Indian system of time measurement, Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide said on Monday, days after India's lander module of mission 'Chandrayaan-2' lost communication when it was close to the lunar surface.

Bhide, a former RSS activist who heads the Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan in Maharashtra, is an accused in the January 1, 2018 Koregaon Bhima caste violence case. However, he was never arrested.

"America attempted to send their spacecraft on the lunar surface 38 times earlier but failed on all those occasions," Bhide said while speaking at an event in Solapur.

He further claimed that following the repeated failures, one of the American scientists suggested that the Indian system of "time measurement" be adopted in place of the system followed by them.

"To all their surprise, the Americans succeeded in sending their spacecraft to the moon in the 39th attempt which was based on the Indian time measurement system. They were successful because the spacecraft was launched on the day of 'Ekadashi'," he added.

'Ekadashi' is the eleventh lunar day (tithi) of each of the two lunar phases which occur in a Hindu calendar month - the Sukla Paksha (the period of the brightening moon also known as the waxing phase) and the Krishna Paksha (the period of the fading moon also known as the waning phase). In Hinduism and Jainism, Ekadashi is considered a spiritual day and is usually observed by partial fast.

Not new to controversies, Bhide had claimed in the past that a number of couples were blessed with sons after eating mangoes from his orchard.

"Mangoes are powerful and nutritious. Some women who ate mangoes of my garden have given birth to sons," Bhide had said in Nashik.