• Source:JND
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Chandrayaan-3 Updates: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Friday that it tried to establish communication with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover of Chandrayaan-3 so that their conditions regarding activation could be determined. However, no signal had been received, according to the space agency. “Efforts have been made to establish communication with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to ascertain their wake-up condition. As of now, no signals have been received from them,” ISRO shared on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The space agency has also added that efforts to establish connection will continue.

Earlier in the day, the directorof Space Applications Centre, Nilesh Desai said that the Pragyan rover and the Vikram lander will be reactivated tomorrow (September 23). He also added that the plan to reactivate it was on September 22, but due to some reasons, it is now postponed to the next day. Speaking about the plan, Desai said that the plan was to move the rover to almost 350 metres, but it has moved 105 metres due to some reasons.

"...Earlier we planned to reactivate the (Pragyan) rover and (Vikram) lander on the evening of 22nd September, but due to some reasons we will now do it tomorrow on 23rd September. We have a plan to take out the lander and rover from the sleep mode and reactivate it...We had a plan to move the rover to almost 300-350 metres. But due to some reasons...the rover has moved 105 metres there," Nilesh Desai said.

On Thursday evening, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that the second phase of Chandrayaan-3 is about to take off in the next few hours. He had added that the scientists are waiting for the wake-up call to be activated and for both Vikram and Pragyan to respond to that alarm.

After a 40-day journey into space, the Chandrayaan-3 lander, 'Vikram', touched down on August 23 at the uncharted lunar South Pole, making India the first country to do so. After transversing over 100 metres on the lunar surface from Shiv Shakti Point, the touchdown spot of the Vikram lander on the lunar surface, the Pragyan Rover was safely parked and set into sleep mode on September 2.

India became the fourth nation after the US, Russia, and China to successfully conduct a lunar landing mission. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft put the Vikram lander on the lunar surface, tilting to a horizontal position ahead of landing. The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh.

(With input from agencies)