美国有线新闻 CNN 印度登月失败 印度总理鼓励科学家（在线收听）

印度登月失败 印度总理鼓励科学家

First, to the moon. Things have not gone as planned in a recent mission by India to make a soft landing on the lunar surface. A soft landing means a spacecraft has a slow, controlled descent. And spacecraft from only three countries — the United States, China and the former Soviet Union — have ever done this. India's attempt to become the fourth country in that club probably ended in failure over the weekend. We say probably because scientists aren't sure yet what happened. There are three components to its mission — an orbiter to circle the moon, a lander to touch down on it and a rover attached to the lander.

On Saturday, the lander was descending towards the moons surface — it was a little more than a mile above it — when contact was lost. Scientists don't know yet how hard it hit the moon, how bad the damage might be or whether the instruments aboard can still get some work done. They have located it but they're still trying to get a signal from it. Even if it's destroyed though, the mission isn't a total loss. The orbiter is still doing its job circling the moon. Its mission is to map the moon's surface and to study its atmosphere. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the mission control room when contact with the lander was lost. He said, in life, there are ups and downs but that India is still proud of its scientists and their hard work.