India’s second lunar mission, named Chandrayaan 2, is set to touch the surface of the Moon after midnight on Friday.
The event will create history, as India will become the fourth country to land on the Moon, and the first nation to reach closest to the Moon’s south pole.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will witness the historic landing live from the space agency’s control room at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru, with over 60 high school students from across the country who have cleared an online space quiz event last month, officials said.
The moon lander Vikram, that separated from its orbiting mother ship, has already performed two manoeuvres to lower its altitude for a perfect touchdown between 1:30 am and 2:30 am on Saturday, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said.
“Chandrayaan-2 would attempt to soft land the lander “Vikram” and rover “Pragyan” in a high plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N. The “Pragyan” will carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day, which is equal to 14 earth days; the main orbiter would continue its mission for a year,” the ISRO said.
“We have the same wishes for Vikram, Orbiter and want to stay in touch with Vikram and Pragyan as they make their way to the untouched lunar South Pole and uncover its many mysteries,” ISRO tweeted.
The powered descent, which India will attempt for the first time, was described as “fifteen minutes of terror” by the ISRO chairperson K Sivan.
“It will be a terrifying moment for us. Everybody’s eyes would be glued to their consoles. The telemetry parameters will keep telling us that we are going in the right direction, but at the same time, there will be a lot of anxiety about what will happen in the next moment,” he said.
Chandrayaan-2 mission was launched on July 22 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
The ISRO has rescheduled the launching time as the mission was aborted just before lift-off a week before due to technical glitches.