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In a crushing disappointment, India's unmanned Vikram lander — carrying a small rover and the pride of a nation — apparently crash landed near the moon's south pole Friday toward the end of a seemingly smooth descent.
With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi looking on at the control center, the Indian Space Research Organization's Vikram lander fired its braking rockets shortly after 4 p.m. ET, kicking off what was to have been a 15-minute descent to the surface.
The Chandrayaan-2 lander, carrying eight science instruments and a small, six-wheel rover known as Pragyan, or "Wisdom," was to have spent two weeks in lunar daylight studying the moon's polar environment in a mission seen as a demonstration of India's increasingly sophisticated space prowess.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/moon-landing-india-spacecraft-historic-lunar-landing-attempt-live-stream-today-2019-08-06/