India is approaching a historic feat on the moon

Four weeks after its launch, the orbiter has completed the merger in the orbit of the moon as planned, the Indian Space Agency (ISRO) said in a statement.

The merger was carried out "successfully today at 9:02 am India time (03:32 GMT), using the system's propulsion system.The maneuver took 1738 seconds," reported the company. ; AFP.

If the mission is carried out according to expectations, the Indian probe should land on the south pole of the moon on September 7th.

To enter the final orbit of the lunar pole, Chandrayaan-2 is expected to perform four similar exercises as of Wednesday.

Kay said. The maneuver is a major step in the mission, said Esfan, president of ISRO, who said he hoped the moon would land properly next month.

"On September 7th, the probe will land on the moon," Sevan told reporters. "We did everything humans can do."

Tuesday's operation was one of the most difficult tasks of the trip, as the spacecraft could have gone deep into space if the orbit had entered too quickly.

The goal of the unmanned mission is to land a vehicle and a mobile robot near the South Pole of the Moon, about 384,000 kilometers from the Earth, as well as to lay a probe in the center of the moon. orbit of the astronomical body.

If successful, India would become the fourth country to land a moon-made vehicle after the Soviet Union, the United States and China. Israel failed to achieve this goal after an investigation by the latter failed to reach its destination in April.

India has allocated $ 140 million to Chandrayaan-2 (which means "lunar vehicle" in Hindi), which is well below that obtained by other space agencies for missions of this type.

The Indian Mission is part of a renewed international interest for the moon. A man who walked to the surface for the last time in 1972 is preparing to return. The US government has asked NASA to prepare for 2024 astronauts.

The Chandrayaan-2 project is the second Indian lunar mission, which had already placed a lunar probe on the Chandrayaan-1 mission 11 years ago.

India's space program is characterized by a combination of high ambitions and limited costs, with much lower operating costs than other agencies, as well as faster progress.