Soft landing of Chandrayaan-2 : History in the making

Sriharikota/ New Delhi/ Bengaluru: 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 and 2:30 am on Saturday (September 7, 2019), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said. This will be followed by the Rover roll out between 5:30 am and 6:30 am, the space agency said.

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) manoeuvre was successfully carried out during the Chandrayaan-1 mission.

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.

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 the Prime Minister at the Indian Space Research Centre headquarters in Bengaluru.

The whole of India is praying as Chandrayaan 2 is set to attempt a soft landing near the South Pole of the Moon.

ISRO also invited accredited mediapersons to cover this important event live from the Satellite Control Centre (SCC) building, ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), I cross, I phase, Peenya Industrial Estate in Bengaluru.

Chandrayaan-2, the second lunar expedition of the country would shed light on a completely unexplored section of the Moon, its South Polar region.

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.

TIMELINE

November 2007: ISRO & Russian space agency Roscosmos sign up for a joint landing mission to Moon.

September 2008: The then Manmohan Singh government approves Chandrayaan-2

2009: Spacecraft design is ready and reviewed by India and Russia

2013-16: Project set back after another Russian joint mission Phobos Grunt fails

2016: Russia backs out as a few elements of Phobos Grunt mission were common to Chandrayaan-2 also

2015: India decides to go it alone; with issues of GSLV MkII launcher yet to be ironed out, mission is expected in 2016 but gets delayed

March 2018: the new date for launch of Chandrayaan-2

July 15, 2019: Launch stopped just an hour before take-off due to a technical problem in the launcher

July 22, 2019: Chandrayaan-2 is launched from Sriharikota

August 20, 2019: Spacecraft arrives near Moon after 30 days in earth orbit and a week's journey from earth

September 7, 2019: The mission is poised for soft-landing on moon around 1.50 am