CLAIM
After the Chandrayaan-2 setback, a YouTube video claims that communication with Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram Lander has been established. The video was uploaded by ‘Next News’ on 10 September with the caption ‘CHANDRAYAN का लैंडर से सम्पर्क हो गया है’
The video has used a tweet which claims to be shared from the official handle of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and mentions that connection with the Vikram Lander has been restored. “But connection is bubbling, we are working to fix it,” the tweet reads.
It received an engagement of over a million views and was shared over 6,000 times at the time of writing this story.
WHAT’S THE TRUTH?
On 10 September, ISRO had tweeted that although the Vikram Lander had been located by Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter, no communication had been established. This tweet is the latest to have been put out by ISRO’s official handle.
Further, on checking the tweet used in the YouTube video, we noticed that the font size and style of ‘@isro’ is different from that of ‘Just Now’.
Further, the tweet in the video shows a time stamp of ‘Just Now’, which, even if the tweet is immediately shared, does not reflect so.
It is also reported the American space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is sending radio signals to Vikram.
“Attempts are being made to re-establish communication links with the moon lander Vikram. The attempts will be made till September 20-21 when the sunlight will be there in the area where the Vikram has landed,” an ISRO official preferring anonymity told IANS.
ISRO is trying to establish link with Vikram with its Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu near Bengaluru.
WHERE IS THE VIDEO FOOTAGE FROM?
PICTURE 1
As the video narration goes, the footage used to depict the re-establishment of communication is not that of the Vikram Lander. The picture attached above is that of an animation showing NASA’s Curiosity Rover.
On breaking down the video and conducting a reverse image search using the Yandex search engine, we came across a BBC report which had the same footage.
We then searched the key words ‘NASA Curiosity Rover’ and came across a video uploaded by ‘NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’ in 2011. The video description tells us the video is an animation depicting NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Mission, which was launched in 2011.
PICTURE 2
The other image which shows a crater on the moon is also an image which was released by NASA. On conducting a reverse search on the image, we came across a video which was uploaded by NASA Goddard on Youtube in March 2012.
PICTURE 3
On conducting a reverse image search on the image, we found that it was used by ISRO to explain the Chandrayaan-2 mission before its lift-off in July. We came across a video aired by national broadcaster DD News which had the same footage as used in this video.
It is, thus, very evident that the news report that claims that ISRO has re-established communication with the Vikram Lander is false.
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