New Delhi: Better tomorrow ahead says PM

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked ISRO scientists not to get disheartened by the hurdles in the Moon mission Chandrayaan-2 and asserted that there will be a "new dawn and better tomorrow."

ISRO's plan to soft land Chandrayaan-2's Vikram module on the Lunar surface did not go as per script in the early hours of Saturday, with the lander losing communication with ground stations during its final descent.

Modi delivered a message of optimism, solidarity and hope to scientists in an address, which was broadcast live, hours after the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that it had lost communication with the lander.

The nation is proud of them and stands with them, he said. "We came very close but we need to cover more ground in the times to come. Learning from today will make us stronger and better. The nation is proud of our space programme and scientists. The best is yet to come in our space programme. There are new frontiers to discover and new places to go. India is with you," Modi said.

The Prime Minister sought to lighten the mood in the moments of disappointment for scientists, saying the Moon has been so much romanticised in poems and literature that Chandrayaan in its last steps ran to embrace it, a reference to the Vikram's failure to lower its speed as planned during its descent to the planet. This is how poets will describe it, he said, adding that the will to touch the Moon has now become stronger and more intense.