‘A billion dreams’ fly towards moon today

India’s second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 will be launched onboard GSLV-Mk0III-M1, dubbed ‘Baahubali’ for its ability to carry heavy payloads,  at 2:43 pm on Monday, a week after the lift-off was aborted due to a technical snag. The 20-hour countdown for the launch began at 6.43 pm here on Sunday, ISRO said.

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. 

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 rehearsal has been successfully completed,” he told reporters at the Chennai airport on brief a stopover en route here. 

The 43.43m tall three-stage rocket would inject the spacecraft into orbit 16 minutes later. Chandrayaan-2, comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, will undergo 15 crucial manoeuvres before landing on the Moon expected by the September first week, Sivan said.

(With inputs from Agencies)