AGENCIES: India’s Chandrayaan 2 Moon is landing at 1:40 am on Saturday. Scientists will initiate complex manoeuvres lasting 15 minutes that, if successful, will make India the first to land on the far side of Moon.

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientists will be glued to their consoles tracking telemetry parameters at the Missions Operation Complex in Bengaluru, as Chandrayaan 2 attempts a soft landing near the South Pole of the moon on September 7. Since the takeoff on July 22, the teamof scientists has been working upto 16 hours a day: calculating the orbit, performing simulations, and planning complex orbital manoeuvres.

The powered descent, which India will attempt for the first time, was described as “fifteen minutes of terror” by the ISRO chairperson K Sivan. “It will be a terrifying moment for us. Everybody’s eyes would be glued to their consoles.

The telemetry parameters will keep telling us that we are going in the right direction, but at the same time, there will be a lot of anxiety about what will happen in the next moment,” ISRO chairperson K Sivan had said, describing the most challenging phase of the mission after Chandrayaan 2 had entered in a lunar orbit on August 20.