Click to play videoBangalore: Chandrayaan-1 successfully completed the most critical operation in the moon mission on Saturday and entered the lunar orbit.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists began manoeuvring the probe into the moon's orbit around 1650 hrs IST, 18 days after it was fired into outer space.
The ground control station at Peenya in Bangalore fired the satellite's rockets to move it into position and the entire operation was completed in about 14 minutes.
Getting a probe into lunar orbit is a dangerous procedure with only a 50 per cent chance of success as scientists have to tackle the gravitational pull of both the earth and the moon.
The satellite has been placed in a 7,502 km X 500 km elliptical orbit around the moon. The spacecraft, launched on October 22, had been placed in the Lunar Transfer Trajectory on November 4.
The mission, orbiting the earth at a distance of 3,86,000 km, was commandeered from ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Peenya on the outskirts of the city with aid from the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu.
Chandrayaan-I would now be lowered gradually and placed in a circular orbit at a distance of 100 km from the lunar surface.
Now that the probe is in orbit, the next big challenge is landing the lunar probe on the moon's surface.
Chandrayaan-1 is now 504 km from the moon and now India is just days away from entering the exclusive club of nations which have planted their flag on the moon.
ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said everything onboard Chandrayaan-1 is working fine. He spoke to CNN-IBN's Deepa Balakrishnan and expressed satisfaction on the successful completion of the entire manoeuvring.
Deepa Balakrishnan: Sir, how critical was this manoeuvre?
G Madhavan Nair: Well if we had not implemented this arresting of the speeding of the satellite, it would have simply flown off beyond moon and into the space. What we have done is very much to capture it and send to the moon. So the timing at which we fire the motor, the incremental velocity that we give, all are crucial parameters. Altitude control, the orientation of the thrusters all are very, very important aspects. But it has gone as per plan. It was a text book precision and we are very happy that it is around the moon orbit today.
Deepa Balakrishnan: It was a 14-minute manoeuvre. So what was going though you?
G Madhavan Nair: We were just watching how each and every parameter was varying. So normally it stabilises for 100 seconds or so and then we know the remaining will follow. So we were happy.
Deepa Balakrishnan: What was the most challenging or difficult about the entire manoeuvre.
G Madhavan Nair: Basically we have text book values about moon's shape, its speed, its position and its gravitational field and so on. But how far it is accurate we don't know. We were facing for the first time. So that's the reason, we took two orbits more. We went around almost the lunar height and came back and calibrated our system. We had a fairly good confidence. But still in a mission like this anything can go wrong. But we were careful and our team has precisely implemented the commanding operations and the tracking operations. The result is perfect.
Deepa Balakrishnan: When will you get the first photographs?
G Madhavan Nair: It will take some more time. I think may be month or so.
Deepa Balakrishnan: Any heart stopping moments in the last few hours?
G Madhavan Nair: Well until it crossed 70 per cent of the velocity decrease we were worried.
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