
The scintillating sight of the moon at such close quarters held the crew of PS-2 spell bound. In the 3 days of flight the PS-2 crew had traveled a total distance of 384,000 kms. Now they were about 254 kms from Lunar surface.
Col. Vishwanathan keyed in his microphone, "Mission Control, this is Flight Commander Vishwanathan. We are in Lunar Observation Altitude. Proceeding to Lunar Observation Orbit."
"We hear you, Colonel. Over."
The Colonel maneuvered the shuttle into the correct trajectory so that it would attain the preplanned orbit of 221 km above lunar surface. Through a number of time consuming maneuvers the space craft finally settled into its orbit.
Vishwanathan waited until the shuttle made 5 complete orbits around the moon before communicating with Mission Control in Earth.
"Mission Control, this is Flight Commander. We are in Lunar Observation Orbit. Successfully completed 5 revolutions around moon. All systems working perfectly. Direct contact established with Lunar Orbiter. Lunar Rover being contacted. Over."
During the flight in the crew had established communications with the Lunar Orbiter, the satellite that had been orbiting Moon for some years now which had provided all the data necessary for this mission. Now attempts were being made to establish contact with the Lunar Rover, the octopod robot that was launched on to Lunar Surface some years ago. The Rover had been conducting several time intensive experiments and surveying on the surface of the moon while transmitting the data to earth via the Lunar Orbiter and Cochin's own constellation of satellites in Geosynchronous and Sun Synchronous orbits.
"Commander, Rover signals are being received, look here," Dr. Priya, a Mission Control Engineer informed Col. Vishwanathan who looked at the frequency spectrum scanner which had finally tracked the specific signal being transmitted by the Rover. Soon the Rover's location was triangulated and preparations for final mission, begun.
"Mission Control, this is Flight Commander, Vishwanathan. Communication established with Lunar Rover. Proceeding with Lunar Landing Mission. Over."
"Best of luck, Commander. The whole of Kingdom is with you. Out" was the message squawking from the speakers.
"Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen. Let us get down to it. Lt. Col. Thomas, I am devolving PS-2 control over to you," Col. Vishwanathan said to his co- pilot, another officer from Royal Cochin Air Force. Vishwanathan and three other Mission Engineers now set out towards the aft of the space shuttle. First they entered the locker room where they changed into their extra vehicular activity suits. After donning their pressurized suits and associated life support systems, the four astronauts were transferred into the Air Lock Chamber through which they would transition towards the Work Station / Cargo hold of the shuttle. Since the canopy of the Cargo hold was now closed there is no need for tethering cables. They made their way towards the smaller vehicle held in the middle of the cargo hold.
The Lunar Landing Module is a 5mX5mX5m octagonal module with attached support limbs and shock absorpant padding. The LLM has thrust engines underneath its body and directional vector thrusters on its limbs. When all four astronauts had strapped into the LLM and their life support systems connected to the reserve pressurized air tanks in the module, Col. Vishwanathan signaled for the Cargo Hold hatch to be opened.
As the cavernous hatch opened revealing the moon at a massively magnified scale, the mechanical tethers holding the LLM were released and a few spurts from the limb thrusters separated it from the Space Shuttle.
The mission to land on moon was on its way.
The engines of the module could not be abused with unnecessary powering. Its main purpose was to achieve lift off from the surface of the moon to get back to the Space Shuttle.
Slowly Col. Vishwanathan achieved the entry into Moon's terminal gravitational field. Brief spurts of concerted thrusts from the main engines and various limb thrusters ensured that the LLM was falling down at a manageable speed and in the correct orientation.
Cameras on the sides of the module kept recording various imagery of the flight and other instruments studied various aspects of the Lunar medium through which the vehicle was traveling.
Finally at an altitude of a few meters Col. Vishwanathan produced a one second burst at quarter power setting from the main engines which slowed down the module for a sufficiently soft lunar landing.
The 8 extended limbs of the Lunar Landing Module had superbly absorbed the shock of landing. With breathless voice, Col. Vishwanathan keyed his communications pod and said,
"Pushpak-2, Mission Control Center, Karagandy, Kingdom of Cochin and the world. This is Mission Flight Commander, Colonel Vishwanathan. We have landed on the moon."