Final Countdown - Chandrayaan 2

Bengaluru: Less than few hours from now the Chandrayaan-2 Lander Vikram will land a probe on the lunar South Pole. All eyes will be on the final descent that will commence on September 7 at 1 am, which would be the most ‘terrifying 15 minutes’ of the lunar mission, as Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Sivan likes to call it.

A successful step on the moon would not just expand India’s footprint in space but it will also make it the first country to reach the South Polar region of the moon in its first attempt, and the fourth country to make a soft landing on the moon otherthan US, Russia, and China.

The proposed soft-landing on the Moon on September 7 by the Chandrayaan-2 mission is by far the most complex in ISRO’s history, says its former Chairman G Madhavan Nair, who is 100 per cent sure of its success.