In a first official statement on the cause of Chandrayaan-2 lander (Vikram) failing to soft-land on Moon on September 7, the Centre has said that extra braking caused the deviation that eventually led to the hard-landing.

The reports said that Vikram had too much of braking thrust that spun it out of control, under the headline “Extra brake thrust may have sent Vikram out of control.”

chandrayaan 2

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, the Centre said the first phase of descent was performed nominally from an altitude of 30km to 7.4 km above Moon’s surface. The velocity was reduced from 1,683 metres per second to 146 metres per second. The reports said that the decrease in velocity was from 1,680 meters per second to 146 meters per second.

During the second phase of descent, the reduction in velocity was more than the designed value. Due to this deviation, the initial conditions at the start of the fine braking phase were beyond the designed parameters. As a result,( chandrayaan-2 lander) Vikram hard landed within 500m of the designated landing site,” the LS reply read.

However, the reply did not get into what was the reason for this additional braking. The Failure Analysis Committee (FAC) that looked into the matter is said to have completed its probe, but the complete findings have not been made public yet.

The Centre said that cost of Chandrayaan-2 was Rs 603 crore (excluding launch cost). Chandrayaan-2 was launched on-board the GSLV MK III M1. The cost of GSLV MK III M1 vehicle is Rs 367 crore.

“Most of the components of technology demonstration, including the launch, orbital critical manoeuvres, lander separation, de-boost and rough braking phase were successfully accomplished. With regards to the scientific objectives, all the eight states of the art scientific instruments of the Orbiter are performing as per the design and providing valuable scientific data,” the reply added.

Also, due to the precise launch and orbital manoeuvres, the mission life of the Orbiter is increased to seven years, the Centre said, adding that the data received from the Orbiter is being provided continuously to the scientific community.