NASA has found pieces of Vikram, a small spacecraft that India attempted to land on the moon in September. They did it with the help of an engineer from India who scoured the lunar surface in his spare time. Vikram was part of India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission to the moon, which launched in July. But less than two miles above the surface, Vikram veered from the planned descent trajectory and fell out of radio contact. A NASA spacecraft, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, has passed over the mission’s intended landing site, on a high plain near the south pole, several times since September.

Source: New York Times December 02, 2019 23:48 UTC