ISRO says flight models test underway for launch of Chandrayaan-2

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Friday said that it is gearing up for its second unmanned moon mission 'Chandrayan-2' which is scheduled for launch in the second quarter of this year, with the flight models going through various levels of tests.

Chandrayan-2 would have an orbiter, lander and six-wheeled rover. The orbiter would be launched into a lunar orbit where the lander will separate, make a soft landing on the moon and deploy the rover.

"Chandrayan-2 is on schedule. We have to find out whether it is in March or not," ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar said after the successful launch of 31 satellites. He said the Chandrayan-2 satellite was getting ready at the ISRO Satellite Centre. The flight models were going through various levels of tests, he added.

Director of ISRO's Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu S Somanath said tests related to Chandrayan-2 were underway at the centre also. "What we are trying to do is to prove the ability to do a soft landing (the rover). Tests are on to demonstrate soft landing in a simulated way," he said.

Terming it as a "wonderful task", he said, "we are trying to complete it in a short span of time and that is going on right now".

To a query on whether there was a possibility of ISRO carrying out manned space mission, Kumar said, "The possibility was always there for taking up such a mission but the government has to decide by giving resources."

On the future launches to be taken up by ISRO in 2018, Kumar said the GSLV-MkII first stage had been assembled and already completed integration. "They are going through the process and it is targeted sometime next month (for launch)," he said. "We also have a number of launches almost every month one launch and we are going to work towards that", Kumar, who is retiring later this month, said.