SRIHARIKOTA: As scientists and engineers at Isro's mission control delicately navigate Chandrayaan-2 to Moon, the space agency's top brass and key figures in the government are scouting for names that India can etch on the lunar surface if Vikram lands there as planned on September 7.

"We are looking to name the location Vikram lands at," Isro chairman K Sivan told TOI soon after Monday's launch. "We are selecting a name, we still have time for that." Asked if Isro or the government has a list of names to select from, Sivan said: "There is no shortlist of names. We are in the process, we will pick a name." The announcement of the name is likely to be made by PM Narendra Modi. "The important thing is to land on Moon first," a source said. "This whole exercise depends on a successful landing. We expect an announcement only after that."

Isro will keep the name under wraps to account for the possibility of an unsuccessful landing, though mission scientists are confident of a successful soft touchdown. Sivan said Isro had completed all preparations for the landing, noting again that "the 15 minutes of terror" - the final moments before landing - will culminate when Vikram sets its footpads on the pockmarked lunar terrain.

If Isro achieves this and enters an elite club of nations - so far comprising only Russia, the US and China - it will also get to name the landing site. More than a decade ago, on November 14, 2008, India named a region near Shackleton Crater ' Jawahar Point ' - to mark the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) carried by Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar mission, striking the surface of Earth's satellite.

The MIP crashlanded on the lunar surface on Children's Day, also the birth date of former PM Jawaharlal Nehru. The exact location of MIP impact is 89.76°S, 39.40°W.



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