The Indian Space Research Organisation launched India’s second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, at 2.43 pm on Monday.

A Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III-M1 was the vehicle used to launch Chandrayaan-2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The spacecraft is expected to land on the south side of the moon, making it the first to attempt this manoeuvre. The lander, Vikram, and the rover, Pragyan, are expected to touch down on the surface of the moon by September 7. </s> The Chandrayaan-2 mission is officially off to a promising start, as India vies to become the fourth nation to land on the Moon.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the three-stage GSLV Mk-III rocket on Monday, July 22 at 2:43 p.m. local time from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, an island off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, according to a press release from the space agency. The rocket successfully deployed its cargo—the 3,840-kilogram (8,465-pound) Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft—into Earth orbit a short time later. ISRO says the spacecraft is in “good health” and moving in the “right direction,” as the Times of India reports.

The rocket was originally scheduled to go up on July 15, but ISRO had to cancel the launch due to technical issues. Yesterday’s successful effort was met with intense relief, after fears that the launch might not happen at all due to the technical snag and short launch window.

Over the next few days, mission controllers will use Chandrayaan-2’s onboard propulsion system to perform a series of orbital adjustments. The spacecraft is not taking a direct path to the Moon. Instead, it will perform a series of ever-widening Earth orbits until it’s far enough away to be captured by the Moon’s gravity. This process will take 48 days, after which time the spacecraft will be close enough to the Moon such that it can dispatch the Vikram lander to the lunar surface.



The Vikram lander, named in honor of Vikram Sarabhai, a pioneering figure in the Indian space program, will attempt to make a soft landing on September 7, 2019. The probe will descend toward the lunar surface at a rate of 2 meters per second (6.5 feet per second) and land on a high plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N, at the Moon’s south pole region, according to an ISRO press kit.

If successful, India will become just the fourth country in the world to land a spacecraft on the Moon, the others being the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China. Earlier this year, Israel’s Beresheet Probe crashed on the Moon, dashing its hope to do the same. The Chandrayaan-2 mission will be the first to explore the Moon’s south pole region.

This is the second time India has sent a spacecraft to the Moon. In 2008, ISRO launched Chandrayaan-1, which involved a lunar orbit and an impactor, the latter of which deliberately crashed into the Moon.

Once on the lunar surface, the Chandrayaan-2 mission is expected to last for one lunar day, which is roughly equal to 14 Earth days. The Vikram lander will deploy Pragyan, a six-wheeled robotic vehicle (Pragyan means “wisdom” in Sanskrit). This rover will travel a maximum 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the landing site, moving at a rate of 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) per second. Neither Vikram nor Pragyan are equipped to survive the lunar night, in which temperatures can drop as low as -170 degrees Celsius (-274 degrees F).

During the 14 Earth days in which Pragyan will be active, the rover will use its onboard particle x-ray spectrometer and laser spectroscope to study the chemical composition of the lunar surface near the landing site. Meanwhile, the Vikram lander will try to detect moonquakes, measure the Moon’s thermal conductivity (the degree to which the lunar surface can conduct electricity), and study the lunar ionosphere (the zone that’s ionized by solar and cosmic radiation). Vikram will be able to communicate with Pragyan, the Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter, and mission controllers back on Earth.

As for the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, it will function in lunar orbit for about one year, and it will observe the surface from a height of around 100 kilometers (60 miles). The orbiter is equipped with a suite of instruments that will allow for topographical scans of the lunar surface, measurements of the Moon’s chemical composition, and surveys of lunar minerals and (possibly) water. The orbiter will also study the Sun with a solar x-ray monitor. Happily, the orbiter is also equipped with a high-resolution camera, so we should get to see some fantastic photos of the Moon’s south pole region. In all, the Chandrayaan-2 mission involves 13 different elements, all of which were developed in-house by ISRO.

Indeed, this is very much a “we did it ourselves” mission for India. The country is striving to become a space power in its own right, and it hopes to show the world that it can do a lot more than just launch satellites into space.

In March of this year, India purposefully shot down one of its own satellites to showcase its growing influence in space. Looking ahead, a third Chandrayaan mission is scheduled for sometime around 2023 or 2024 (possibly in conjunction with JAXA, Japan’s space agency). There’s even talk of putting astronauts in space by 2022 and sending a probe to Venus by 2023.

“India wants to show, especially since Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi came into office, that India is a major power, and that India has to be treated as a major Indo-Pacific power,” Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, head of the nuclear and space policy initiative at the Observer Research Foundation, told CNN.

But this is all for the future. For now, India still needs to safely place the Vikram lander on the lunar surface, a feat scheduled for September 7. As Israel learned earlier this year, nothing should be taken for granted. Space, as it’s often said, is hard. </s> Sriharikota(AP): India’s second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 aimed at landing a rover on unchartered Lunar South Pole was launched Monday with the country’s most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle successfully injecting the spacecraft in the Earth orbit after lift-off from the spacesport here Monday.

The 43.43m tall three stage rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here into cloudy skies at 2.43 p.m and about 16 minutes later released the 3,850 kg Chandrayaan-2 into the orbit, a week after the earlier launch was called off on July 15 following a technical snag observed during the propellant filling stage.

The injection of the Chandrayaan-2 into the Earth orbit marks the successful accomplishment of the first phase of the ambitious mission that will take about 48 days to land on the Moon surface.

The launch took place at the end of a 20-hour countdown that started at 6.43 p.m Sunday after Indian Space Research Organisation scientists rectified the glitch that prompted them to call of the earlier launch.

The three-component Chandrayaan-2 comprising an orbiter, a lander and a rover will undergo 15 crucial manoeuvres before landing on the moon, expected by the first week of September, ISRO said.

Billed as the most complex and prestigious mission undertaken by the ISRO since its inception, Chandrayaan-2 will make India the fourth country to soft land a rover on the lunar surface after Russia, the United States and China.@PTI </s> This photo released by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) shows its Geosynchronous Satellite launch Vehicle (GSLV) MkIII carrying Chandrayaan-2 lift off from Satish Dhawan Space center in Sriharikota, India, Monday, July 22, 2019. India successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft to the far side of the moon on Monday, a week after aborting the mission due to a technical problem. (Indian Space Research Organization via AP)

NEW DELHI (AP) — India sent a spacecraft to explore water deposits on the far side of the moon in a successful launch Monday after a technical problem caused a week’s delay.

Scientists at the mission control center burst into applause as the rocket lifted off in clear weather as scheduled at 2:43 p.m. from Sriharikota in southern India. K. Sivan, head of India’s space agency, said the rocket successfully injected the spacecraft into orbit.



The Chandrayaan, the Sanskrit word for “moon craft,” is scheduled to land on the lunar south pole in September and send a rover to explore water deposits confirmed by an earlier, orbiting mission. India would become only the fourth nation to land on the moon, following the U.S., Russia, and China.

India’s first moon mission in 2008 helped confirm the presence of water.

The country plans to send its first manned spaceflight by 2022.

India’s launch coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission this month. It came at a time when the world’s biggest space agencies are returning their gaze to the moon, seen as an ideal testing ground for technologies required for deep space exploration, and with the confirmed discovery of water, as a possible pit stop along the way. The U.S. is working to send a manned spacecraft to the moon’s south pole by 2024.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country’s lunar program will get a substantial boost, writing on Twitter that the country’s existing knowledge of the moon “will be significantly enhanced.”

Sivan said at a news conference that the successful launch of the spacecraft was the “beginning of India’s historic journey” to the moon.

The launch of the $141 million moon mission last week was called off less than an hour before liftoff because of a “technical snag.” Media reports scientists from the Indian Space Research Organization identified a leak while filling helium in the rocket’s cryogenic engine. The space agency neither confirmed nor denied the reports, saying instead that the problem had been identified and corrected.

The spacecraft that launched Monday is carrying an orbiter, lander, and rover that will move around on the lunar surface for 14 Earth days. It will travel about 47 days before landing on the moon.

India put a satellite into orbit around Mars in the nation’s first interplanetary mission in 2013 and 2014.

With India poised to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, Modi’s ardently nationalist government is eager to show off the country’s prowess in security and technology.

India successfully test-fired an anti-satellite weapon in March, which Modi said demonstrated the country’s capacity as a space power alongside the United States, Russia, and China. </s> India launched a rocket into space on Monday in an attempt to safely land a rover on the moon, the country’s most ambitious mission yet in the effort to establish itself as a low-cost space power.

If successful, the 10 billion rupee ($130 million) mission will allow Indian scientists to carry out studies regarding the presence of water at the moon’s south pole, unexplored by any other nation before.

“This mission will offer new knowledge about the Moon,” prime minister Narendra Modi said in a Twitter post, praising the scientists responsible for what he called a fully indigenous mission.

China, Russia and the United States are the only other nations to have sent missions to the moon.

A live broadcast showed images of the rocket, carrying the unmanned Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, blasting off from a space centre in southern India as thousands of onlookers cheered the launch, delayed for a week by a technical snag.

The boosters separated safely as the craft began its nearly 50-day journey, after which the lander will attempt a controlled landing to deploy a rover at the moon’s south pole.

The spacecraft had been successfully injected into the earth’s orbit, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

The next month and a half will see the spacecraft perform crucial maneuvers to ensure a smooth landing, ISRO chairman K Sivan said, as the agency’s officials congratulated each other with handshakes and bear hugs after the launch.

“We are going to experience 15 minutes of terror, to ensure that the landing is done safely near the south pole,” he told reporters, describing the final moments before the craft is expected to land on the moon, about 47 days from now.

The space agency has previously said the descent on the moon could be complex, with potential problems from variations in lunar gravity, terrain and dust having to be taken into account.

Globally, Chandrayaan-2, whose name means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, will be the year’s third bid at a moon landing, following China’s successful launch of a lunar probe and the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft, which failed and crashed on the moon in April.

India’s space agency suspects the south pole region of the moon contains water in the form of ice as well as craters that could reveal fossilized information about the early solar system.

Last week saw the 50th anniversary of humankind’s first steps on the moon in 1969. – Reuters </s> China's lunar exploration programme chief on Monday congratulated India on its successful launch of Chandrayaan-2 and said Beijing was actively pursuing its own moon mission and is not in competition with any other country in planning its space explorations.

India on Monday successfully launched its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 on board its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 from the spaceport in Sriharikota to explore the unchartered south pole of the celestial body by landing a rover.

The geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle lifted-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre into cloudy skies at 2.43 pm and successfully placed the 3,850-kg Chandrayaan-2 into the earth orbit about 16 minutes later.

Wu Weiren wished India's Chandrayaan-2 a success and said China which is actively pursuing its own moon mission and is not in competition with any other country in planning its space missions.

International efforts to explore the moon - including made by India, Israel and the US - which is determined to send its astronauts back to the moon within five years, will be pressuring and motivating China's lunar probe missions to further develop, Wu was quoted as saying by the state-run Global Times commenting on the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-2 into space.

"The international trend will not play a decisive role in China's planning on its lunar missions, and China is not going to compete with any one over the matter," Wu said.

"China will pace itself against plans that have been already laid out in advance with each step surely achieving set goals," he said.

Wu said China's space projects have always been carried out in an independent and controllable fashion.

China's Chang'e-4 has become the first spacecraft to land on the lunar far side also known as the dark side of the moon in January this year.

The rover Yutu-2 then rolled off the lander to explore its surroundings.

China is planning several space missions including to Mars as well as building its own space station by 2022.

The success of Chandrayaan-2 has brought a huge relief for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists after they postponed the launch on July 15 following a technical glitch in the rocket.

The Rs 978-crore unmanned mission also brought woman power to the fore as it was helmed by two woman scientists of the ISRO - Ritu Karidhal and M Vanitha, the Mission and Project directors respectively.

Joined by President Ram Nath Kovind and leaders across the political spectrum, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the scientists and said every Indian is immensely proud today.

In a series of tweets, Modi referred to the indigenous systems used in Chandrayaan-2 and said the mission is "Indian at heart, Indian in spirit!...

According to ISRO, the lunar South Pole is an interesting surface area which remains in shadow than North Pole.

There is a possibility of the presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it, the agency said, adding craters in the South Pole region have cold traps and contain fossil record of the early solar system.

Also Read: Chandrayaan-2 launched by ISRO, but what next? India plans mission for Sun

Also Read: Postcards from Chandrayaan 2 launch: Magnificient pictures of ISRO's second moon mission

Also Read: India's tryst with destiny: 'Bahubali' puts Chandrayaan-2 into orbit | Highlights </s> India's second moon mission Chandrayaan 2 seeking to explore the unchartered lunar south pole by landing a rover will be launched onboard its most powerful rocket GSLV-Mk0III-M1 from Sriharikota on July 22, a week after the lift-off was aborted due to a technical snag.

The Rs 978 crore mission, which has been rescheduled for Monday after scientists corrected the glitch in the rocket, will be launched at 2.43 pm from the second launchpad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, over 100 km from Chennai.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists, who aborted the previous launch with 56 minutes left for the countdown to end on July 15, have taken quick remedial action based on an analysis carried out by a team set up to look into the snag and announced the rescheduled launch three days ago.

A 20-hour countdown for the launch began at 6.43 pm on July 21, ISRO announced.

Chandrayaan 2 comes 11 years after ISRO's successful first lunar mission Chandrayaan 1 which scripted history by making more than 3,400 orbits around the Moon and was operational for 312 days till August 29, 2009.

"Chandrayaan 2 is ready to take a billion dreams to the Moon now stronger than ever before! Join us for the launch on Monday 22 July, 2019 at 2.43 pm IST," ISRO had tweeted on July 18 while announcing the rescheduled launch.

On the eve of launch, ISRO Chairman K Sivan said all preparations were on and the glitch had been rectified.

"Whatever technical snag we observed on July 15 has been rectified. The vehicle is in good health... The (pre-launch) rehearsal has been successfully completed," he told reporters at the Chennai airport on brief a stopover enroute Sriharikota.

The 43.43m tall three-stage rocket dubbed 'Baahubali' for its ability to carry heavy payloads would blast-off carrying Chandrayaan-2 and inject the spacecraft into Earth orbit about 16 minutes later. After lift-off, the 3,850 kg Chandrayaan-2, comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, will undergo 15 crucial manoeuvres before landing on the Moon, expected by the first week of September, Sivan said. Scientists would make soft landing of the lander in the South Pole region of the Moon where no country has gone so far, the ISRO chief said.

Billed as the most complex and prestigious mission undertaken by the ISRO since its inception, Chandrayaan-2 will make India the fourth country to soft land a rover on the lunar surface after Russia, the United States and China. About 16.20 minutes after the lift-off, the GSLV rocket will inject Chandrayan-2 into 170 km x 39059 kms Earth orbit. From then onwards, the mission will witness a series of manoeuvres by scientists to carry out different phases of the mission over the next 48 days.

Subsequent to the rescheduling of the launch, the space agency has tweaked the orbital phases, increasing Earth-bound phase to 23 days as against 17 days planned orginally.

At the end of the Earth-bound phase, the orbit of the spacecraft will be finally raised to over 1.05 lakh km before nudging it into the Lunar Transfer Trajectory taking it to the proximity of Moon in the next two days. Then gradually over the next few days it will be brought to 100 X 100 km circular orbit when the lander will separate and after another few days of orbiting it will make a soft landing at a chosen place on the Lunar surface.

The soft landing of the lander - Vikram carrying rover 'Pragyan', one of the toughest phases of the mission and described by the ISRO chief as "15 minutes of terror (filled moments), would be attempted between September 6-8.

"Chandrayaan-2 is the next leap in technology as we attempt to soft land close to South Pole of Moon. The soft landing is extremely complex and we will experience approximately 15 minutes of terror," he had said earlier.

The mission, which carries a total of 13 payloads, including three from the Europe, two from the US and one Bulgaria, seeks to improve understanding of the Moon which could lead to discoveries that will benefit India and humanity as a whole.

A Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) of US space agency NASA is among the payloads and is aimed at understanding dynamics of Earth's Moon system and deriving clues on Lunar interior. Sivan Sunday said Chandrayaan-1 revealed the presence of water molecules and similarly there were possibilities of the latest mission returning successful scientific experiments.

"It is because of these reasons that Chandrayaan-2 has attracted attention not only from the Indian scientists but also from global scientists," he said.

ISRO encountered the snag on July 15 when the liquid propellant was being loaded into the rocket's indigenous cryogenic upper stage engine. Veteran scientists heaped praise on ISRO for calling off the launch rather hurrying into a major disaster. President Ram Nath Kovind was present here on July 15 to witness the launch.

The launch of Chandrayaan-2 had missed its date earlier too when it was fixed for the first week of January. But it was shifted to July 15. According to ISRO, the lunar South Pole is an interesting surface area which remains in shadow than North pole.

There is a possibility of the presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it, the agency said, adding craters in the South Pole region have cold traps and contain fossil record of the early solar system. The lander 'Vikram', named after father of Indian space research programme Dr Vikram A Sarabhai, carrying the rover 'Pragyan', will be landed in a high plain between two craters at a latitude of about 70 degrees South of the moon.

Then the 27-kg 'Pragyan' meaning 'wisdom' in Sanskrit and a six-wheeled robotic vehicle, will set out on its job of collecting information on lunar surface. A safe site free of hazards for landing would be decided based on pictures sent back by the camera onboard the lander and after touchdown the rover will carry out experiments for 14 Earth days, equals one Lunar Day.

The launch would be witnessed by nearly 5,000 people who will be accommodated at a viewing gallery, located a few kms from the launch pad, thrown open to the public by the ISRO in last May. </s> Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address from the ramparts of Red Fort on Wednesday, said the country will see an Indian on a space mission under an indigenous space project called ‘Gaganyaan‘ before 2022. This was Modi’s last Independence Day speech ahead of general elections and as PM in the current tenure.

Modi said when India celebrates 75th year of Independence in 2022, “and if possible even before, an Indian son or daughter” will undertake a manned space mission on board ‘Gaganyaan‘ “carrying the national flag”.

‘Gaganyaan’ will be the first manned space mission launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). If India does launch the Gaganyaan mission, it will be the fourth nation to do so after the United States, Russia and China.

India had launched its first lunar probe Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 and operated it until August 2009. The major achievement of Chandrayaan-1 was the discovery of widespread presence of water molecules in lunar soil. The mission, which was supposed to last for two years, was suspended in just 312 days. However, the scientists at ISRO had claimed that the mission had achieved 95 per cent of its goals before they lost touch with it.

ISRO will launch Chandrayaan-2 in the January-March window of 2019. The mission was supposed to be launched this year but it was postponed following design changes in the spacecraft for its safe landing on the lunar surface.

ISRO had launched its Mars probe Mangalyaan or the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)on September 24, 2014. The spacecraft specific search for methane in the Martian atmosphere will provide information about the possibility or the past existence of life on the planet.

For all the latest Technology News, download Indian Express App </s> The launch of Chandrayaan-2, India's second mission to the Moon which was called off due to a technical snag on 15 July 2019, will be taking off on Monday, 22 July 2019 at 2.43 pm IST.

In a dramatic and anti-climactic turn of events, the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) called off the highly-anticipated Chandrayaan 2 launch 56 minutes before its scheduled liftoff at 2.51 am on 15 July.

The Indian Space Research Organisation is counting down to the launch of India's second mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-2. The spacecraft, carrying an orbiter, lander and a rover, will be launched on a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-MkIII from a launchpad in Sriharikota, as was planned earlier.

When & where you can watch it live

The mission will be streamed live on DD National's YouTube channel and tech2's Youtube, Facebook and Twitter handles, made available 30 minutes before the launch window opens, at 2.43 pm IST on 22 July.

What does the mission comprise off?

ISRO said that the Orbiter and Lander modules of Chandrayaan-2 have been stacked together with the rover tucked away inside the lander as a single integrated module that was recently fit into the GSLV MK-III-M1 rocket for a ride to orbit. The Chandrayaan-2 integrated module is expected to reach the Moon's orbit by September, and make a landing on 6 September.

This spacecraft has its own Orbiter propulsion module which will power the vehicle's escape out of Earth's orbit and into the Moon's. Once the spacecraft reaches the Moon's orbit, it will attempt to make a soft landing in a region 600 kilometres away from the lunar South pole. This would be the first time any mission touched down so far from the equator, according to a report in Science. The lander will separate from the orbiter and descend to the surface to make India's first-ever moon landing around 6 September, ISRO estimates in the release.

The Pragyaan rover will roll out of the Vikram lander carrying an array of scientific instruments meant to study the lunar surface. Some of the instruments in the mission will also be mounted on the lander and orbiter. The orbiter module of Chandrayaan-2 will circle the moon and relay data and information about conditions on the surface, ISRO states on its website.

"The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice," the statement adds.

The 20-kilogram, six-wheeled Pragyaan rover is a semi-autonomous robot that is tasked with studying the composition of regolith, the mixture of tiny moon rocks and fine dust the blankets the Moon's surface.

Chandrayaan-2 will be India's second mission to the moon, and the first to attempt a soft landing. It is a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-1, which launched in October 2008 and helped provide the first confirmation of water (in the form of hydroxyl ions) on the moon in 2009.

Find our entire collection of stories, in-depth analysis, live updates, videos & more on Chandrayaan 2 Moon Mission on our dedicated #Chandrayaan2TheMoon domain.
The Indian Space Research Organization successfully launches Chandrayaan-2 to survey lunar water from Satish Dhawan Space Center, India's second lunar exploration mission. If successful, Chandrayaan-2 will become the first spacecraft to land on the lunar south pole.