India's ambitious mission Chandrayaan-2 looks to create history tonight
Chandrayaan-2 to make a soft landing on the surface of the moon
India's second mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-2, is scheduled to make a soft landing on the surface of the moon between 1:30 am to 2:30 am on Saturday, 7th September 2019, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said.
This will be followed by the Rover roll out between 5:30 am to 6:30 am, the space agency stated. So, if all goes as planned, India would be on the moon at 1:55 am.
ISRO chairman K Sivan has said the proposed soft-landing on the Moon is going to be a "terrifying" moment as the ISRO has not done it before, whereas Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver was successfully carried out during the Chandrayaan-1 mission.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be at the ISRO around midnight to watch the event. Sixty students have been selected from all over the country who, after having won a space quiz, got this opportunity to watch the soft landing of Chandrayaan-2 on the surface of the moon along with PM Modi at Indian Space Research Centre headquarters in Bengaluru.
ISRO also invited accredited media persons to cover this important event live from Satellite Control Centre (SCC) building, ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), I cross, I phase, Peenya Industrial Estate in Bangalore.
India's second lunar expedition would shed light on a completely unexplored section of the Moon, its South Polar region.
The second de-orbiting maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully in the wee hours of Wednesday. "The maneuver was performed successfully today (September 04, 2019) beginning at 0342 hours Indian Standard Time (IST) as planned, using the onboard propulsion system," the space agency said in a statement.
The duration of the maneuver was 9 seconds and the orbit of Vikram Lander is 35 km x 101 km.
The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft will be the first Indian expedition to carry out a soft landing on the lunar surface. This mission will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia, and China to conduct a soft landing on the moon.
After revolving around the Earth's orbit for nearly 23 days, the craft began its journey to the moon on August 14. The mission took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 22.
