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The launch of India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission, set to send a rover to the moon, is likely to be pushed back to September after it was called off minutes before schedule earlier on Monday
NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik -) The launch of India‘s Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission, set to send a rover to the moon, is likely to be pushed back to September after it was called off minutes before schedule earlier on Monday, a source with the knowledge of the ongoing discussions in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told Sputnik on Monday.
The Chandrayaan-2 mission is one of the most ambitious projects of the Indian space program. After ISRO announced the date and time of the long-awaited launch a few weeks ago, the whole country has been closely monitoring the preparations. President Ram Nath Kovind arrived at the Sriharikota space center to watch the planned launch. Less than an hour before the scheduled takeoff on Monday, ISRO, however, aborted the mission due to a “technical snag.
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“The launch window on July 15, just days before the 50-th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first walking on moon, was missed. The next window for launch is likely to be in September. It is unlikely to happen during the windows in July,” the source said.
The Chandrayaan-2 is India‘s second lunar exploration mission, preceded by the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, which was sent to the Moon in 2008. The first spacecraft comprised a lunar orbiter and a lander, while the more advanced second mission is� equipped with an orbiter, a lander and a rover, which will study the mineralogical and chemical composition of the lunar surface.
The launch was originally scheduled for April 2018 but then was postponed several times for undisclosed reasons