With the Chandrayaan 2 entering the lunar orbit on Tuesday,India’s second mission to moon achieved the “biggest milestone”, second only to the 15 minutes of suspense the scientists will experience on September 7 when the lander-rover starts its decent to the moon.

“This was an extremely critical point in the mission, Iwould say the biggest milestone only second to the lunar landing. The moon is a moving object and so is our spacecraft. To ensure lunar capture, several parameters such as the velocity and the inclination had to be precise,” said an ISRO official, on condition of anonymity.The lunar orbit insertion is one of the biggest challenges in the mission, second only to the moon landing to be attempted on September 7. After the lunar orbit insertion, there will be four more such man oeuvres to make the spacecraft enter into its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100km from Moon’s surface, Isro has said. The Bengaluru-headquartered space agency has said subsequently the Vikram lander will separate from the orbiter on September 2. Two orbit man oeuvres willbe performed on the lander before the initiation of powered descent to make asoft landing on the lunar surface on September 7, according to the agency said.

Chandrayaan 2 had entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory onAugust 14 after final orbit raising manoeuvre of the spacecraft wassuccessfully carried out.

Chandrayaan 2 lifted off on July 22, onboard Isro’s mostpowerful launcher, the 640-tonne rocket Geosynchronous Satellite LaunchVehicle-Mark III (GSLV-Mk III), from the country’s only launch site SatishDhawan Space Centre.

The mission carries 13 Indian scientific instruments forexperiments. Imaging of rock will be done to find elements like magnesium,calcium and iron and also for signs of water. Mission will also study theexosphere of the moon. The health of the spacecraft is being continuouslymonitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Trackingand Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep SpaceNetwork (IDSN) antennas at Byalalu near the capital of Karnataka.

All systems onboard Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft are performingnormal, Isro said on August 14. It said Chandrayaan 2 will shed light on acompletely unexplored region of the Moon, its South Pole.

“This mission will help us gain a better understanding ofthe origin and evolution of the Moon by conducting detailed topographicalstudies, comprehensive mineralogical analyses, and a host of other experimentson the lunar surface,” the space agency has said.