NASA Spots Lost Indian Spacecraft on the Moon
Members of the media prepare for the Vikram lander descent on Sept. 6.
Photographer: Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images
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NASA has found an Indian spacecraft that crashed in September while attempting to land near the moon’s south pole during a mission that captivated millions in the South Asian nation.
The U.S. agency released images showing an impact site and debris from the Vikram lander, which disappeared with a rover minutes before a scheduled touchdown that would’ve made India just the fourth nation to pull off a soft landing on the moon. The attempt, watched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, came 50 years after Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps on the lunar surface.