The inability of the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-2 mission to make the needed and expected ‘soft landing’ on the moon’s hitherto uncharted ‘South Pole’ broke a billion and more hearts. Still, what the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s complex lunar mission achieved and is set to achieve with the orbiter still safe around the moon was and would be remarkable enough to fill us with pride. It is not for nothing that the Chandrayaan-2 mission has come in for praise from NASA. The last minute glitch caused by ‘hard brake’ that possibly spun the lander out of control was not a failure, but a deferred success in that it is only a matter of time before the ISRO clears the final hurdle. To quote Rabindranath Tagore, tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection. It is a misnomer to call the faltering in the last leg a ‘setback’ as there is nothing called ‘setback’ when it comes the pursuit of knowledge in the realm of science (Front page, “ISRO scientists work to decode Chandrayaan-2 lander failure,” Sept. 8).
G. David Milton,
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu