India’s biggest space mission Chandrayaan-2 was launched back on July 22 and the mission is not far away from getting accomplished. ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission will attempt to put an Indian lander and rover on the Moon’s surface.
To catch live, ISRO’s YouTube channel will start live streaming the event at about 1:10 am, a good half hour before any movement begins.
DD National’s YouTube channel will also start live streaming at 1.00 am, apparently with a feed from the control centre.
The Press Information Bureau of India is also live streaming on its YouTube channel tonight and also on Facebook and its English and Hindi Twitter handles.
The whole episode will start around 1:38 am when the Vikram lander starts rough braking about 30 km above the lunar surface.
When it gets to around 7.4 km above the surface at 1:48, it is when the team will start fine braking.
It’s then expected to touch down at 1:53, with the Pragyan rover being positioned hours later around 5:29 am, after all the checks have been finished.
The lander is certain to touch down on Moon’s surface on September 7 which would be a historic event in the making as India all set to become the first country in the world to make a soft landing on the Moon’s South pole.
Well, it is particularly a complex move, with the last 15 minutes of the automatic descent being the most dangerous step.
In case if ISRO loses communication with the lander at that point of time, it can crash. Yes, if the landing is off the pinpointed site even by a whisker, it can crash.