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Things took a disastrous turn when India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft attempted to land on the Moon on September 6. As it approached the Moon’s south pole, where it had planned to land in order to confirm the presence of water ice, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost contact with the machine. It was presumed the machine crashed into lunar surface but after more than a month of searching, there has been no evidence of Chandrayaan-2 found

India's Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft entered lunar orbit on Tuesday in a small but important step on its journey towards the moon. Chandrayaan-2, which means "moon vehicle" in Sanskrit, entered the orbit around midnight Eastern Time in a complicated insertion maneuver that took 29 minutes. "Our hearts almost stopped today till it completed its job," Kailasavadivoo Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), told reporters at a news conference. "But still the landing is the terrifying moment... because that is a phase that we are doing for the first time," he added. If the spacecraft lands successfully, India will become...

The country's latest lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, which means "moon vehicle" in Sanskrit, took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh state at 2:43 p.m., Monday local time (5:13 am ET). The launch was originally scheduled for July 15, but was abruptly called off just 56 minutes before lift-off due to a "technical snag." India is now on the way to becoming the fourth country -- in addition to United States, China and the former Soviet Union -- to make a soft-landing on the lunar surface. The Chandrayaan-2, which weighs 3.8 tons and carries 13 payloads,...

Chandrayaan 2 is India’s first lunar landing mission, and the country’s second robotic mission to the moon following the launch of the Chandrayaan 1 orbiter in October 2008. The launch Sunday will come two days before the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11. If the landing is successful, India will become the fourth nation to accomplish a controlled soft landing on the moon, after the former Soviet Union, the United States and China. The Israeli non-profit SpaceIL attempted a landing on the moon in April with the Beresheet mission, but the privately-funded probe crashed on final descent. Located...