page_title: Chandrayaan-2
section_title: Planned landing site
hierarchical_section_title: Chandrayaan-2 / Mission profile / Planned landing site
caption_attribution_description: English: The flat highland between Simpelius N and Manzinus C craters was the planned landing zone for India's Vikram lunar lander. Image obtained by NASA's LRO intended to find the lost lander, known to have crash-landed on 6 September 2019.
context_page_description: Chandrayaan-2 is the second lunar exploration mission developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation, after Chandrayaan-1. As of September 2019, it consists of a lunar orbiter, and also included the Vikram lander, and the Pragyan lunar rover, all of which were developed in India. The main scientific objective is to map and study the variations in lunar surface composition, as well as the location and abundance of lunar water.
  The spacecraft was launched on its mission to the Moon from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh on 22 July 2019 at 2.43 p.m. IST by a GSLV Mark III M1. 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.
context_section_description: Two landing sites were selected, each with an ellipse of 32 by 11 kilometres (19.9 mi × 6.8 mi). The prime landing site (PLS54) was at 70.90267°S 22.78110°E (600 km (370 mi) from the south pole), and the alternate landing site (ALS01) was at 67.87406°S 18.46947°W. The prime site was on a high plain between the craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N, on the near side of the Moon.
caption: The flat highland between craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N was the planned landing zone for the Vikram lander.
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