As the nation awaits with bated breath for the soft-landing of the ‘Vikram’ lander on the south pole of the lunar surface, the first attempt by any country, ISRO said on Friday everything related to the much awaited touchdown is going as per plan.

Joining the nation in wishing ISRO a success, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the mission manifests the best of Indian talent and spirit of tenacity. “Its success will benefit crores of Indians,” he said in a series of tweets.

“We are eagerly waiting for the event. Everything is going according to the plan,” Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation K Sivan told PTI on Friday.

The touchdown of ‘Vikram’ lander is scheduled between 1.30 am and 2.30 am, followed by the rollout of rover ’Pragyan’ between 5.30 a.m and 6.30 a.m.

The soft landing will be telecast live from 1.10 a.m on Doordarshan, webcast on ISRO website and streamed on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Hours before the “historic” event, Prime Minister Modi in a series of tweets said, “The moment 130 crore Indians were enthusiastically waiting for here! In a few hours from now, the final descent of Chandrayaan-2 will take place on the Lunar South Pole. India, and the rest of the world will yet again see the exemplary prowess of our space scientists.”

Modi, dozens of students from across the country selected by ISRO though an online quiz, a large media contingent and others are slated to watch final descent of the lander as it happens, from the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) here.

“Certainly there is lot of anxiety in the minds of the entire (Chandrayaan-2) team because it’s a very complex operation and we are doing it for the first time,” a senior official associated with the mission, said.

A successful touch-down will make India the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to achieve a soft landing on the moon, and the first to launch a mission to the unexplored south polar region.

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