The lift-off of Chandrayaan 2, Indian's space mission that aims to place a robotic rover on the moon, has been called off. President Ram Nath Kovind was supposed to witness the live launch of the mission from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The 3.8-tonne satellite was set to be taken to the moon on the 640-tonne GSLV Mk III (nicknamed "Baahubali"), India's most powerful rocket. After lift-off, Chandrayaan 2 was supposed to head to the south pole of the moon for a soft landing.
The journey of 3.84 lakh kilometres will take nearly two months to complete. The Chandrayaan 2 mission will carry a 1.4 tonne lander Vikram - which in turn will take the 27-kilogramme rover Pragyan - to a high plain between two craters on the lunar South Pole.
If the mission is successful, it will be a huge achievement for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), that has a budget almost 20 times less than US space agency NASA. The mission's success will make India the fourth country to soft-land a spacecraft on the lunar surface after the US, Russia and China.
