“Our heart was almost stopping: ISRO Chief on Chandrayaan-2 entering Moon’s orbit

PTI, Aug 20, 2019, 1:17 PM IST

Bengaluru: “Our heart was almost stopping”, was how ISRO Chairman K Sivan described the tense moments when team Chadrayaan-2 attempted to inject the spacecraft into the lunar orbit on Tuesday.

As ISRO scientists started firing Chandrayaan-2’s onboard liquid engine to put the spacecraft in an orbit around the Moon, Sivan said, “our heartbeat increased”.

But Sivan said the proposed soft-landing on the Moon on September 7 is going to be a “terrifying” moment as it is something ISRO has not done before, whereas LOI maneuver had been carried out successfully during the Chandrayaan-1 mission also.

“Now the tension has only increased, not reduced,” he said while addressing a press conference.