Indian moon mission - Nov 8 . . . . .

Today is probably the do or die day for India's moon mission, the lunar craft is fast approaching the moon and if any of the complex operations slated for today fail, it could have disastrous consequences.
It had a flawless launch on October 22, 2008. The arduous 17-day journey has been a bumpy one but the Indian space agency says all systems on board the unnamed satellite are working well and if all goes well in a very delicate operation fraught with many dangers, the Chandrayaan should rendezvous with the moon and then remain in the moon orbit for the next two years. When there it will be mapping the lunar resources like never before. Among its first tasks placing India's tricolor on the moons surface.
This fire and smoke heralded India's ascendancy to a exclusive group of moon faring nations. India's lunar craft is now dashing in space to keep its date with the moon. By all accounts, the country's moon dreams have been a blazing success so far.
Hectic preparations are ongoing in the Mission Control Center in Bangalore to ensure that nothing goes wrong since the lunar craft is at its farthest point a whopping 400,000 kilometers from Earth and talking to it is a big challenge since all signals are very faint.
"Chandrayaan-1 is performing well and it is about 3.8 lakh kilometers away from Earth and in a series of complex maneuvers it will be putting the satellite in the moon orbit, it is a tricky operation, but ISRO scientists are confident of achieving the task," said Dr S Satish, Director, ISRO, Bangalore.
A tricky operation indeed but how will it be done