 The craft reached the Moon's orbit on 20 August 2019 and began orbital positioning manoeuvres for the landing of the "Vikram" lander.The lander and the rover were scheduled to land on the near side of the Moon, in the south polar region at a latitude of about 70° south on 6 September 2019 and conduct scientific experiments for one lunar day, which approximates to two Earth weeks.A successful soft landing would have made India the fourth country after the Soviet Union, United States and China to do so.