Chandrayaan 2, India's high-profile lunar mission, lifted off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh today. The launch of Chandrayaan 2 was aborted last week after a technical glitch was discovered. The 3,850 kg Chandrayaan 2, a three-component spacecraft comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, will explore the unchartered lunar south pole. The mission comes 11 years after ISRO's successful first lunar mission Chandrayaan 1 that made history by making more than 3,400 orbits around the moon and was operational for 312 days till August 29, 2009.
The mission was stopped 56 minutes and 24 seconds before its launch last week, after a technical snag was discovered in the unmanned launch vehicle system. The glitch was with the critical cryogenic stage, the last such stage space vehicles enter just before they are about to launch.
Chandrayaan-2's success will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to pull off a soft landing on the moon. ISRO's budget is less than 20 times that of USA's NASA. The success of the mission would be a giant boost for India's space plans.
Here are the LIVE updates on Chandrayaan 2 launch today
- At 16.2 minutes, Chandrayaan separates from rocket, 181.6 km above Earth
- Till Day 23: Chandrayaan orbits Earth upto a max. 38,500 km
- Day 30-42: Chandrayaan in Lunar orbit
- Day 48 or Sept 7th: Lander 'Vikram' and rover 'Pragyan' to land on Moon
- India 4th to land rover on Moon but 1st to land near south pole
- On Sept 7th, soft landing on the moon
ISRO's Second Launch Attempt For Chandrayaan-2 At 2:43 pm Today | NDTV.com Video | The 20-hour launch countdown for Chandrayaan-2 began Sunday evening at 6.43 pm, tweeted space agency ISRO. Chandrayaan-2, India's ambitious Rs. 1,000-crore moon mission, is set to be launched at 2.43 pm today.
