Indian Spacecraft Carrying Lunar Rover Enters Moon’s Orbit

India is now set to join a very exclusive international club, hoping to become the fourth country to successfully land in the Moon, behind the US, Russia (USSR), and China.

Addressing the world’s media, K Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the new mission had achieved a milestone. “Chandrayaan-2 mission crossed a major milestone today, the precise lunar orbit insertion maneuver was carried out at 9 am for about 30 minutes and Chandrayaan 2 was precisely inserted in the defined orbit.”

ISRO officials are confident that on September 7, at 1:55 am, their lander will land on the Moon.

Sivan also noted that the next major event will take place on September 2nd, after the lander is separated from the orbiter. Then, on September 3rd, we will run a series of tests to ensure that the systems of the lander are running smoothly in preparation for the landing manuever.

RT International reports…

India has successfully placed its rover-carrying spacecraft Chandrayaan-2 into lunar orbit, clearing one of the final hurdles for the Vikram lander’s historic touchdown on the unexplored southern pole of the Moon.

Because of the great risks associated with the feat, the highly sophisticated maneuvering required some great engineering skills and precise calculations from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists.

#ISRO
Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) of #Chandrayaan2 maneuver was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019). The duration of maneuver was 1738 seconds beginning from 0902 hrs IST

For more details visit https://t.co/FokCl5pDXg

— ISRO (@isro) August 20, 2019

The team had to slow down the spacecraft just to the right velocity to complete the intricate work of this segment of the mission. Approaching lunar orbit too fast would cause the spacecraft to bounce into deep space while placing it in position at slow speeds would result in a crash landing because the ship would be unable to battle the moon’s gravitational forces, SRO explained.

Continue this story at RT International

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