Earlier this week on Sunday, 15th July, Chandrayaan-2 was all set to be launched but was called off at the eleventh hour due to a technical snag. A leak was detected in the cryogenic stage of the launch vehicle causing the launch to be postponed. But the India Space Research Organization (ISRO) has set up a new official date and time for the launch. Chandrayaan-2 will now be launched on Monday, July 22nd at 2:43 PM IST.
What Is It?
The Chandrayaan-2 Mission is to deliver a lunar orbiter to the moon’s South Pole. This orbiter will have a lunar lander and a rover on board. Not only will it be the first attempt by any space agency to soft land a rover at the moon’s South Pole, but also India’s first attempt at this kind of a soft landing where a lander attempts to control its path to the moon’s surface and touch down softly.
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If everything works out according to the plan on Monday, then India will become the fourth country to have managed this kind of a moon landing after the US, Russia, and China.
The Rs 978-crore mission will be India’s second Lunar mission after Chandrayaan-1 which was launched on October 22, 2008, and operated till August 2009.
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What’s More?
Earlier this year in April, Israel attempted a similar mission to land a probe on the moon, but failed when their Behersheet spacecraft crashed on the surface if the moon.
The early selection of a new launch date after the failure of July 15th proves how keen ISRO is about the project and that the glitch faced on Sunday was not really serious. The success of this mission can open new doors for India in the world of space, and give the country an all new place and status in the field.