The fact that ISRO managed to place it there is an enormously laudable feat, and act of technical wizardry so immediately rewarding that it almost doesn’t matter that Vikram toppled over and went silent. It is, of course, hugely disappointing that Vikram looks to be unrecoverable. The science it and its Pragyan rover could have carried out in one of the geologically strangest and increasingly strategic parts of the Moon would have been a thrill to see. But, you know, space is hard.
India’s lunar lander and rover may not be recoverable, but the mission managed to successfully deploy an eye in the Moon’s airless skies, one that will conduct up to seven years of groundbreaking interplanetary science.
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