Chandrayaan-2 Moon Landing LIVE updates: Countdown to historic moment begins

New Delhi: Weeks after the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched Chandrayaan-2, India's mission to the Moon, its lander module, Vikram, will attempt to make a soft landing on the south polar region of the lunar surface tonight. A region never explored before, the south holds immense potential to reveal new science as it is believed to hold a lot of water trapped as ice in deep craters.

The Vikram Lander is scheduled to begin its descent to the surface of the Moon at around 1.30 am on Saturday at the speed of 6 km per second, or about 21,600 km per hour. Within 15 minutes, it will reduce its speed to 2 metres per second (about 7 km/hr) or lower to enable a safe landing.

Around three hours after Vikram lands, a six-wheeled robotic vehicle called Pragyan will come out of the lander and crawl the surface of the Moon to collect data, which will be relayed back to ISRO. Vikram and Pragyan will be operational for 14 days, the duration of a lunar day.

(With inputs from Indian Express)