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Round the house
The Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan 2 is now orbiting the Moon.
That means we are about to touch the lunar surface on September 7th, according to France Media Agency. If the mission continues as planned, India will become the fourth country to place a spacecraft on the moon, after Russia, the United States and China, which will consolidate the role of its space agency as a player leading in the field.
Slingshot
The maneuver that brought the spacecraft into orbit around the moon is one of the most delicate parts of the mission AFP reports. If it approached at too high a speed, the gravitational pull of the Moon would not have been enough to stabilize the ship and it would have taken off in space. Too slow, he would have been dragged into a forced landing on the moon.
"The speed of approach had to be fair and the altitude above the moon precise. Even a small mistake would have killed the mission, "said the president of the Indian Space Research Organization, Kailasavadivoo Sivan, during a press briefing in which participated AFP.
Big step
India has already reached lunar orbit before – the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft reached it in 2008.
But a successful landing would keep the country on track for its stated goal of launching a crewed mission by 2022 and an unplanned landing on Mars.
READ MORE: Indian lunar probe enters lunar orbit[[[[France Media Agency]
More on the space: India's satellite debris blew into still polluting orbit
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