BANGALORE, Nov 8: India’s first unmanned spacecraft entered lunar orbit on Saturday, 18 days after an Indian-built rocket transported it into outer space, officials here announced.

“The motor on board Chandrayaan-1 was fired at 5.15pm for 805 seconds, which successfully put the spacecraft into lunar orbit,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Director S. Satish announced.

“This was an extremely complex manoeuvre but we have achieved our mission of inserting the craft into lunar orbit without any hitch,” an ISRO spokesman at the organisation’s headquarters in Bangalore added.

Chandrayaan-1, which was launched on October 22, entered the moon’s space on Tuesday after orbiting the earth for several days. Mission controllers hope the spacecraft’s orbit will stabilise in about a week. It is then expected to send a probe to the moon’s surface to carry out tests.

The ISRO mission control erupted in celebration as Chandrayaan-1 completed its manoeuvres and went into an orbit of the moon, said officials.

Mission chief N.S. Hedge said the last 20 minutes before the craft dropped into its planned orbit were the most anxious moments for ISRO scientists.

“We were looking at all possible contingencies — anything that can go wrong and we were preparing in our minds what measures we have to take because this mission is something that does not forgive us for the mistakes,” Hedge said.

ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair was visibly jubilant. “This will go down in the history of Indian space research in golden letters,” Nair told reporters.

“No one else in the world perhaps would have got such a precise lunar orbit as India did in the first attempt and now India has a big leadership position as far as space is concerned,” he added.—AFP