Chennai | ISRO Chairman K Sivan said that the insertion of India’s spacecraft to the moon, Chandrayaan-2, into the lunar orbit was a tense 30-minute operation.
“It was tense 30-minute operation. The tension and anxiety kept on building as the clock ticked. It was a great relief and joy when the Chandrayaan-2 was put into the lunar orbit successfully,” Sivan told news agency IANS soon after the crucial operation.
“We are visiting the moon once again,” he added.
Addressing a press conference over the successful insertion of Chandrayaan 2, K Sivan said,” The spacecraft reached a major milestone today. The manoeuvre that took around 30 mins. Put it in defined orbit in the perfect manner”.
He said that now the Chandrayaan will be going about the moon with an inclination of 88 degrees. In due time, it will turn to 90 degrees.
“A higher-than-expected approach velocity would have bounced off the spacecraft into deep space, while a slow approach would have led to the moon’s gravity to pull Chandrayaan 2 and crash it on the lunar surface. The approach velocity had to be just right and the altitude over the moon rather precise. Even a small error would have killed the mission,” he said.
ISRO had tweeted soon after the insertion.
#ISRO
Today (August 20, 2019) after the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI), #Chandrayaan2 is now in Lunar orbit. Lander Vikram will soft land on Moon on September 7, 2019 pic.twitter.com/6mS84pP6RD— ISRO (@isro) August 20, 2019
Sivan said that the next event will happen on September 2 when the lander will be separated from the orbiter.
The ISRO chief concluding his talk said, “On September 7, at 1:55 am lander will land on the moon. Whatever is humanly possible, has been done by us.”
Sivan also said that Gaganyaan, India’s human lunar mission, will soon be possible and selection of astronauts for the same is on the way.
Earlier today, Chandrayaan 2 successfully manoeuvred into lunar orbit today, after nearly 30 days of space travel.
Also Read: Big day for ISRO: Chandrayaan 2 to be injected in Lunar orbit today
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