A P J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday said he will keep his fingers crossed till the spacecraft reaches its lunar orbit after 15 days

Hailing the successful launch of India’s first moon mission Chandrayaan-I, former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday said he will keep his fingers crossed till the spacecraft reaches its lunar orbit after 15 days.

Kalam was one of the leading scientists who laid the foundation for the ambitious Indian moon mission which came to reality on Wednesday with the copybook launch of Chandrayaan-1 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

In a statement, Kalam said “launching of the mission is first step and I hope every step of the mission falls at the right place.”

India’s unmanned mission to the earth’s only satellite - Moon - was put successfully in the earth’s orbit.The spacecraft was injected in elliptical transfer orbit with a perigee of about 250 km and apogee of about 23,000 km. It will continue to orbit the earth for fifteen days before entering into the Moon’s gravitational area and entering the Lunar orbit.