Extra braking caused Vikram to deviate: Govt in LS

BENGALURU: 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 TOI had reported in its September 8 edition 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.”
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 Moons surface. The velocity was reduced from 1,683 metre per second to 146 metre per second. The TOI had reported that the decrease in velocity was from 1,680 meter per second to 146 meter 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, 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.
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