Bengaluru: India’s second mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-2, would be launched on July 15, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Sivan announced on Wednesday.
The landing on the moon near the South Pole, an uncharted territory so far, would be on September 6 or 7, Sivan told reporters here, as the Indian space agency is all set to embark on its most complex mission.
The launch would take place at 2.51 am on board the GSLV MK-III vehicle from the spaceport of Sriharikota. The ISRO had earlier kept the launch window for the mission from July 9 to July 16.
The spacecraft, with a mass of 3.8 tonne, has three modules — Orbiter, Lander (Vikram) and Rover (Pragyan). Sivan said Orbiter would have eight payloads, Lander three and Rover two. The mission cost of Chandrayaan-2 with regard to the satellite was Rs 603 crore, he noted.
The cost of GSLV MK III is Rs 375 crore.
According to the ISRO, Orbiter, with scientific payloads, would orbit around the moon. Lander would soft land on the moon at a predetermined site and deploy Rover. The scientific payloads on board Orbiter, Lander and Rover are expected to perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface.
‘PA regime delayed Chandrayaan-2’
Former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair on Wednesday claimed that the Chandrayaan-2 mission could have been carried out long ago but for the “political decision” of then UPA government to push the “Mangalyaan” venture with an eye on the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
The architect of Chandrayaan-1, India’s first unmanned mission to the moon launched on October 22, 2008, served as the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the secretary in the Department of Space from 2003 to 2009. (PTI)
