Moon lander separation successful, says ISRO

Indian probe Chandrayaan-2's lander Vikram detached itself from atop the main spacecraft yesterday afternoon as planned, as it got ready to descend to the moon's southern surface over the next four days. The lander carries small six-wheeled rover Pragyan within it; once they reach the lunar surface, the rover will get out of Vikram to physically probe moon. The D-day for the two is September 7 around 1.55 am. Soon after separation, the lander was in an orbit of 119 km x 127 km around moon. It will start sailing down towards its assigned lunar landing spots after two de-orbits today and tomorrow. No country has soft-landed on the south polar region that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has chosen to explore.