I congratulate India and ISRO on Chandrayaan 2 mission, says Pakistan Astronaut

Pakistan’s first ever female astronaut Namira Salim, has congratulated the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) on the Chandrayaan 2, India’s second lunar mission and it’s attempt to make a landing on the South Pole region of the Moon.

"I congratulate India and ISRO on its historical attempt to make a successful soft landing of the Vikram lander at the South Pole of the Moon,"Marima Salim in a statement to the Karachi based science magazine, Scientia.

"The Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission is indeed a giant leap for South Asia which not only makes the region but the entire global space industry proud."

"Regional developments in the space sector in South Asia are remarkable and no matter which nation leads - in space, all political boundaries dissolve and in space - what unites us, overrides, and divides us on Earth."

Namira Salim acknowledged as the first Pakistani to go to space aboard the Virgin Galactic.

Ms Salim’s statement sprung after contact between Vikram lander and the orbiter was lost in a last minute impediment when the Vikram lander was just 2.1 km away from it’s landing spot on the Moon’s surface on Saturday.

However on Sunday, the Indian space agency reported that it had recovered Vikram lander on the Moon’s surface. The pictures of it was taken by the orbiter, which is still orbiting the Moon.