ISRO screens show communication with Vikram lander was lost at 335 m, not 2.1 km
ISRO in its official statement had said: \"normal performance (of Vikram) was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km.
New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in its official statement on September 6 had said: "normal performance (of Vikram) was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km and subsequently, communication from Lander to the ground stations was lost."
This is Mission Control Centre. #VikramLander descent was as planned and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km. Subsequently, communication from Lander to the ground stations was lost. Data is being analyzed.#ISRO
— ISRO (@isro) September 6, 2019
However, data captured on screens at Mission Operations Complex at ISRO's Telemetry Tracking and Command Centre which are the basis of ISRO's analysis show that communication was lost when the lander was barely 335 m (0.335 km) from the surface of the moon, Indian Express reported.
The screens show a green dot which represents the lander. The data suggests that it started to deviate from the time its altitude was just above 2 km and continued to deviate before stopping at a point that is clearly below 1 km and near or below 500 m.
According to the data, failure in the "fine braking phase" was observed at the final part of Vikram's journey (an altitude of 5 km- 400 m).