Hours after Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram Lander lost contact with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) around 2.1 km from the lunar surface on Saturday, social media not only lauded the Indian scientists for their efforts but also remained optimistic about the mission.
The video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugging ISRO chief K Sivan has gone viral on social media with netizens dubbing it as the hug of over a billion Indians and heaping praises on both. PM Modi was praised by Daniel Carmon, the former Israeli ambassador to India and Sri Lanka. One Twitter user described the Prime Minister’s reaction as “human” while another said both ISRO chief K Sivan and Prime Minister Modi had “won millions hearts”. A third said that a hug from PM Modi was nearly priceless for ISRO.
In a nearly minute-long video PM Modi can be seen shaking hands with the ISRO chief as he leaves the building that houses the space agency’s control room. As he walks to his car, he shares a few words with Sivan, who then appears to break down. The Prime Minister then leans forward, pats him on the back and pulls him forward for an embrace.
The hashtag Chandrayaan2 was trending ahead of the landing of the Vikram module, however, over 87,000 tweets were being sent after the news broke out. Other hashtags for K Sivan, VikramLander, ISRO, MoonMission, IndiaOnTheMoon and ProudOfIsro reflected the collective sentiment of Indian twitterati.
Describing scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) hardworking and their work inspirational, a user said there was “no losing in science”. “Lost Communication but not hope. We are proud of you ISRO.. #Chandrayaan2,” actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol tweeted.
On Twitter, Anand Mahindra shared a link of the aforementioned news update and said that communication isn’t “lost” because every Indian can “feel the heartbeat” of Chandrayaan-2. “We can hear it whisper to us that ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’,” an excerpt from Anand Mahindra’s tweet reads. The internet has agreed with Anand Mahindra as his post has garnered over 49.3k likes and been retweeted over 9.3k times.
“My dear Hard-working & INSPIRATIONAL scientists of @isro, just remember that, in the field of science: ‘THERE’S NO LOSING. THERE’S WINNING. & THEN THERE’S LEARNING.’ I’m sure you would’ve learnt quite a lot during #Chandrayaan2, which will definitely help us in future missions,” a tweet read. Ashish Sharma’s tweeted, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts, we just lost the communication not the hope.”
Harini Calamur, a communication professional, said failure was only another step towards progress. “Repeat after me - it is not a failure...It is one more step in the advancement of science. Those who call it a failure don’t get scientific progress....The history of science is filled with stories like this that enabled humanity to build back better. #Chandrayaan2,” she tweeted.
Telugu actor Sudheer Babu tweeted applauding the country’s “brave attempt”. “Proud of @isro... South polar region of moon is unexplored for all the risky reasons involved. India’s brave attempt not only will guide our future space programs, but also the other space powers. Experiment is the fundamental step of science,” he said.
Venture capitalist Rajeev Mantri wrote on the social media site that people’s response to the mission will “do a world of good”. “I’m confident @isro will eventually succeed with #Chandrayaan2. More broadly, people’s response starting with @narendramodi’s urging to “move forward”, will do a world of good. Many children were watching. The message goes out: failure is an event, not a person,” he wrote.
Chandrayaan-2, which took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on July 22, would have been the first to land on the moon’s southern pole. The Vikram module’s prime objective, after a soft landing, was to send a robotic rover “Pragyan” to study the lunar topography, its minerals, and most importantly, to study the evidence for water molecules first discovered by Chandrayaan-1.