Yes it’s heartbreaking. A dream nurtured over the years which culminated into moments of deep anxiousness during these last six weeks has just been missed by a whisker. The intervening night of September 6 & 7 and the few hours thereafter have been the moments of extreme opposites. The euphoria that scaled to dizzy heights turned into minutes of despair giving way for pin-drop silence that enveloped not only ISRO’s Mission Operations Complex in Bengaluru, but also the entire nation. And as everyone is gripped with melancholy at the moment, a belief of ‘end of everything’ will naturally show signs of ubiquity. But it’s not at all so, since in terms of percentage, the failure part is only of a miniscule proportion and rest part of the mission is doing fine. This setback is only for the time being which has deferred India’s joining of the elite club of nations that have landed on moon and if the resilient mood displayed by ISRO is to be believed, it is in no time a missionary zeal for its    renewed perusal will be undertaken.
Chandrayaan 2 created an overwhelming enthusiasm both within and outside the country as no nation hitherto tried the venture of exploring this uncharted territory of moon. Except for the last-minute glitch when Isro lost contact with its lander, everything had been precision-perfect. Having travelled a distance of 3,83,998 km out of 3,84,000 km between earth and moon, the mission faced hiccup just 2.1 km before final touchdown on lunar surface, which actually means that a history which was in the making has been missed by a nano margin of 0.0006%. As of now, although status of the lander is still unknown with ISRO analysing communication data to ascertain what exactly has happened, the Orbiter is continuing to function as per its pre-determined assignment and will keep sending images to earth for the next one year. Even if it’s true that 100 % success has remained elusive and there is a continuous harping over it too, records tells a different story. From 1958 to 2019, out of total 109 lunar missions undertaken by various countries including space superpowers, 48 had failed which is an ample testimony to the fact that it’s an unavoidable part of the great game of knowing the unknowns of space.
That the world media (excluding Pakistan which has booed and relished childlishly over it, as is expected from them!) had unanimously applauded India for its endeavour with a global lowest-ever budget must be a matter of great satisfaction.
A victory has just slipped out of grasp this time and it’s certainly not the end of road. Rather, it might be the onset of the space learning curve heading northwards.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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