A10 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 , 2019
BY NIHA MASIHnew delhi — India’s first at-
tempt to land on the moon went
awry early Saturday when the
country’s space agency lost con-
ta ct with the lander as it neared
the lunar site, minutes before
touchdown w as expected.
Hours later, there was still no
official word on whether signals
disappeared because of a problem
on the lander or because i t crashed
onto the surface of the moon, but
Prime M inister Narendra M odi, in
an address to the nation Saturday
morning, indicated that the mis-
sion had failed.
“We came very close but we
need to cover more ground,” Modi
said.
Launched in July, Chan-
drayaan-2 had successfully com-
pleted Earth and moon orbits and
was set to execute a controlled
landing on the lunar south pole, a
previously unexplored region.
The incident could now set
back India’s growing space ambi-
tions, seen as a reflection of the
aspirations of its young popula-
tion.
In the tense moments leading
to the descent, a live broadcast
from the space agency’s control
room showed rows of scientists
with headphones sitting in front
of computers. About 10 minutes
after the lander began its descent,
the commentary went quiet as of-
ficials talked among themselves
with concern. K. S ivan, head of the
space agency, announced that
communication with the lander
had b een lost.
Of the 38 soft-landing attempts
made on t he moon, only a bout half
have succeeded. In April, Israel
attempted to land a spacecraft on
the l unar surface, only to fail in t he
final moments. India had hoped
its Chandrayaan-2 mission would
make it the fourth nation to land
on the moon after the United
States, Russia and C hina.
Pallava Bagla, science editor of
news channel NDTV, s aid the mis-
sion would not be considered a
failure. Pointing to Chan-
drayaan-2’s orbiter, which has a
mission life of a year, he said,
“Fifty percent of the mission is
already successful and function-
al.”
The orbiter carries eight scien-
tific experiments for mapping the
lunar surface and studying the
outer atmosphere of t he moon.
Experts had warned that land-
ing Vikram, named after t he coun-
try’s first space agency chief,
would be c hallenging.“Proper s oft landing i s the m ost
crucial part of the exercise,” said
Patrick Das Gupta, a professor in
the physics and astrophysics de-
partment at Delhi University.
“From an altitude of 21 miles to
zero height is t he most scary time.”
Sivan had called the landing
maneuver “15 minutes of terror” i n
a television news interview.
The mission has been a source
of immense national pride. Social
media erupted in support of the
space agency and its scientists de-
spite the s etback.
“Be courageous,” Modi told the
scientists in the control room, in a
moment that was broadcast
across Indian public televisionand live-streamed online. “This is
not a small achievement. The
country i s proud of you.”
The success of the moon mis-
sion news could have helped take
some heat off the Modi govern-
ment, which is grappling with an
increasingly gloomy economic s ce-
nario marred by poor GDP figures
and high unemployment rates.
India’s first moon mission,
Chandrayaan-1, launched in
2008, was instrumental in t he dis-
covery of water molecules on the
lunar surface. The current mis-
sion would have looked for the
presence o f water.
India’s mission comes as other
nations and c ompanies are eyeingthe l unar s urface. This y ear, China
landed a spacecraft on the far side
of the moon, a first, and has plans
to land another craft in t he c oming
months.
NASA is desperately trying to
return to the moon — and had
hoped to do so this year. Last year,
the space agency chose nine com-
panies to be eligible to bid on
contracts to fly science experts to
the lunar surface. At the time,
NASA officials said they were
pressing the companies to have a
real s ense of urgency.
“It’s important we get back to
the moon as fast as possible,”
NASA Administrator Jim Briden-
stine told reporters this year.“We’re going to take shots on
goal.”
Meanwhile, the Trump White
House has directed the U.S. space
agency to return astronauts to the
moon by 2 024.
One of the successes of India’s
space program has been its cost-
effectiveness. Chandrayaan-2 cost
$141 million, a small fraction of
what the United S tates spent on i ts
historic Apollo moon m ission.
India also has begun prepara-
tions to send a manned mission t o
space b y 2022.
[email protected]Christian Davenport in Washington
contributed to this report.BY WILL ENGLUNDmoscow — Voters in Moscow
will go to the polls Sunday to
elect a new city council, choosing
from among more than 200
hopefuls in 45 districts — but
with most of the main opposition
candidates excluded from the
ballot.
The protests that have shaken
Moscow this summer were
sparked by the refusal of the
Central Election Commission to
accept, according to one count,
204 candidates because of al-
leged deficiencies in their regis-
tration papers.
Activists and others claim the
paperwork glitches were merely
a way to keep opponents of
President Vladimir Putin off the
ballot.
All of the leading candidates
associated with opposition leader
Alexei Navalny have been
blocked from the ballot, as have
other outsiders. It doesn’t leave
the outcome of the election in
much doubt — even though there
is one very conspicuous absence.
Putin’s United Russia party is
also not taking part.
Officially, anyway, United Rus-
sia hasn’t nominated any candi-
dates.
But it will have plenty of
support in the new city council.
In all but one district, United
Russia members are running as
“independents” because their
pa rty brand has become so un-
popular.
The party’s support has eroded
faster than Putin’s, but his has
been declining as well. Analysts
chalk that up to a struggling
economy, weariness over corrup-
tion and what seems to many
Russians as political stagnation
— including a decay of patriotic
feeling following the spike of
enthusiasm after Russia’s seizure
of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
And that’s not just in Moscow.
Elections are being held in 18
regions and 26 cities, and United
Russia’s participation can be
hard to find.
In Khabarovsk, near the Pa-
cific Coast, candidates from the
ruling party are running on the
Time For Change ballot line.
(Critics point out that name
doesn’t capture the spirit of the
party’s actual approach to poli-
tics.) In Irkutsk, by the shores of
Lake Baikal, the pro-Putin fac-tion is called Our Irkutsk.
The acting governor of St.
Petersburg, Alexander Beglov,
who has worked in city govern-
ment since Putin was there in the
1990s, is also running as an
independent. He took office last
year, when his predecessor left
for another post, and was widely
mocked after a big snowfall last
winter for having himself tele-vised while handing out shovels
to United Russia officials. Critics
suggested it would be better for
the city to invest in more mecha-
nized snow removal equipment.
Registering as candidates for
the city council in St. Petersburg
also presented difficulties.
Hopefuls complained that it
was hard to find out what hours
the commission was acceptingregistration papers. At times,
large groups of phony candidates
reportedly formed long, slow
lines at election offices, denying
real candidates a chance to get in
before closing.
The absence of the ruling par-
ty, said Konstantin Gaaze, a polit-
ical analyst at the Carnegie Mos-
cow Center think tank, “is a
strong signal from the Kremlin
that United Russia is effectively
dead. All its candidates are un-
dercover.” But, he noted, anyone
who wants to can go online,
where opposition websites have
outed them as members of Putin’s
political apparatus.
“When people express their
viewpoint, including during pro-
tests, I believe they have a right to
do that. And sometimes it pro-
duces a positive result because it
shakes the authorities, sets them
in the right direction to effective-
ly resolve problems,” Putin said
Thursday at an economic forum
in Vladivostok, according to the
Interfax news agency. “But the
established rules and laws need
to be observed.”
In Moscow, Gaaze said, the
street protests themselves have
constituted a moral victory ofsorts.
After a brutal crackdown
July 27, the Kremlin has clearly
backed off, he said. That’s be-
cause people in the rest of the
country took a dim view of troops
from the Interior Ministry and a
new uniformed force called Rosg-
vardia fanning out in large num-
bers on the streets of the capital.
“This is a huge win,” he said.
“Neither the Kremlin nor the
opposition” had expected this
public reaction.
Courts sentenced four protest-
ers to prison on Tuesday and
Wednesday for their actions dur-
ing the July 27 demonstration but
dropped charges against five oth-
ers and released two to house
arrest.
With his own candidates
knocked off the ballot, Navalny
has called on Muscovites to prac-
tice what he calls “smart voting”:
selecting whichever candidate in
each district has the best chance
of beating the (United Russia)
nominee. Not all his backers like
this idea, especially if it means
voting for a Communist. Some
will probably deface their ballots
instead — or just stay home.
[email protected]BY PAMELA CONSTABLE
AND SIOBHÁN O’GRADYkabul — With U.S.-Taliban peace
talks at a critical moment and
insurgent violence on the rise,
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is
set to travel on short notice to
Washington in the next week to
meet with U.S. officials, an aide to
a senior official in Ghani’s admin-
istration confirmed Friday. The
trip was planned for Saturday but
has now been delayed by several
days, the aide said.
Meanwhile, the top U.S. peace
negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, re-
turned to Qatar on Thursday to
meet with Ta liban officials after
the latest round of talks there had
already ended, according to a U.S.
official, who spoke on the condi-
tion of anonymity because the
person was not authorized to dis-
cuss sensitive negotiations.
Both unexpected moves came
as Afghan society reeled from a
surge of Ta liban attacks that
erupted over the past week in
Kabul and elsewhere, even as
Khalilzad and other U.S. officials
declared that a peace deal was
imminent. The attacks left scores
of people dead and residents anx-
ious, confused and angry.
There is particular concern
that insurgents will target Shiite
communities in Kabul, which are
observing Muharram, a solemn
period for Shiites. Militants from
the Ta liban and Islamic State have
attacked mosques, shrines and
other Shiite gathering places dur-
ing Muharram in previous years.
“Everyone is scared now. No-
body wants to go to work or send
their kids to school because there
might be more explosions,” said
Kamal Khan, 32, a mason who
was sharing tea with his brothers
on a blanket outside a hospital
Friday morning. They were wait-
ing to visit an elderly cousin who
was blinded in a suicide bombing
in Jalalabad this week.
“We have all been hoping for
peace, but the Ta liban want to
show they are strong by killing,”
Khan said. “We would like to have
elections, but people will be too
afraid to vote. Everything is stuck
now. We have lost our way.”
After years of conflict, Afghans
have become used to the dreadful
routine of urban violence — the
gruesome wounds inflicted by ex-
plosives, the hastily dug graves.
But the growing anticipation of
peace, and plans for a presiden-
tial election later this month, hadallowed people to imagine a life
without war for the first time in
decades.
Now, conflicting signals from
Ta liban and U.S. officials, a fierce
battle among the Afghan political
elite about who will negotiate
later with the insurgents, and
doubts about whether an election
should be held at all have left
many Afghans perplexed and an-
guished.
“This is a very unsettling mo-
ment for Afghans. They are suf-
fering through stepped-up insur-
gent violence while Washington
tries to finalize a deal that many
regard as a surrender,” said Mi-
chael Kugelman, a regional ex-
pert at the Wilson International
Center for Scholars in Washing-
ton. “The Afghan political leader-
ship seems indecisive and divid-
ed, at a critical moment with
elections just a few weeks away.
This is a high-grade mess.”
One telling sign of Afghan frus-
trations came Monday, after in-
surgents bombed a secure com-
pound for foreign contractors
and visitors on the outskirts of
Kabul. A spokesman for the Ta li-
ban said it was targeting “foreign
occupiers,” but most of the 16
people killed were Afghan civil-ians. A Romanian diplomat was
among the dead. Enraged local
residents surrounded the site,
shouting that the foreigners
should leave because they are a
magnet for attacks.
On Thursday, a car bomb explo-
sion near the U.S. Embassy and
the Afghan intelligence head-
quarters here killed 10 Afghan
civilians and two NATO service
members, one of them an Ameri-
can. The Ta liban also launched
offensives in the far western prov-
ince of Farah and the northeast-
ern province of Baghlan, a re-
minder of the reach of its fighting
capacity.
Afghan officials have expressed
serious concerns about the pro-
posed deal, saying it does not offer
enough assurance that Afghan
civilians and security forces will
be protected if U.S. troops with-
draw as agreed. The new spate of
violence has deepened that con-
cern, and appeared to have
prompted Ghani’s plans to visit
Washington.
“Seeking peace with this group
that is still pursuing the killing of
innocent people is meaningless,”
Ghani said Thursday.
Adding to the chaos, the head
of the Afghan intelligence agencywas forced to step down Thursday
after the day’s Kabul bombing
and an Afghan security raid in
Jalalabad that killed four broth-
ers and aroused local protests.
Critics have accused Ghani of
abetting political turmoil by in-
sisting on holding the election
under dangerous conditions in an
effort to win a second term. Oth-
ers accused his government of
failing to plan for Afghan talks
with Ta liban leaders that are sup-
posed to come after a U.S. deal.
Conflicting U.S. statements
have also heightened public con-
fusion and worry about the pro-
posed deal, which has been nego-
tiated in secret. Khalilzad has
painted it as a positive step, and
President Trump has stressed the
urgency of removing U.S. forces
from the country. But a key Re-
publican senator and a group
of former U.S. diplomats have
warned against a hasty w ithdraw-
al. The diplomats said Afghani-
stan could collapse into civil war
unless some troops remain and a
stronger deal is signed.
Ta liban spokesman Suhail Sha-
heen tweeted Saturday evening
that the group had held meetings
with Khalilzad, Qatari Foreign
Minister Mohammed bin Abdul-rahman al-Thani and U.S. Army
Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, the top
U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
“Both meetings were positive
and well attended,” he wrote.
In the absence of U.S. govern-
ment openness about the deal,
alarmist rumors have spread
across Afghan society.
“Everything that’s happening
is a mystery,” said Abdul Azam, a
telephone company worker. “Do
we know if the Ta liban doing the
negotiations are the real Ta liban
group in power? We hear the
president making speeches and
saying everything will be fine, but
it’s not. People are confused and
afraid.”
In west Kabul, where many
Shiite Muslims and minority eth-
nic Hazaras live, the fear is palpa-
ble and specific.
Omid Hajji Agha, 19, said
mosques in the area were “full
during Muharram in the past, but
not anymore. There is no security
here. Everyone talks about peace,
but peace talks are cheap words.
Still the fighting continues.”
[email protected]
[email protected]Sh arif Hassan and John Hudson
contributed to this report.India loses contact with craft amid moon landing attempt
In Russia’s restricted local elections, activists are seeking a moral victory
Afghan leader to visit U.S. as peace deal limps and Taliban violence surges
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A protester is detained Aug. 17 in Moscow during a rally against the
exclusion of opposition candidates from the ballot for city council.Country had hoped to
become fourth nation to
complete such a missionINDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANIZATION/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
India’s Vikram lander descends toward the moon’s surface before technicians lost communications. The mission aimed to land on the unexplored lunar south pole.