India Launches Moon Mission Chandrayaan 2 in Second Try (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - India’s mission to the moon has blasted into space one week after a technical glitch forced scientists to abruptly halt its scheduled launch.
India's high-profile lunar mission Chandrayaan 2, lifted off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh today. The launch of Chandrayaan 2 was aborted last week after a technical glitch was discovered.
The 3,850 kg Chandrayaan 2, a three-component spacecraft comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, will explore the unchartered lunar South Pole. The mission comes 11 years after ISRO's successful first lunar mission Chandrayaan 1 that made history by making more than 3,400 orbits around the moon and was operational for 312 days till August 29, 2009, NDTV reported.
The mission was stopped 56 minutes and 24 seconds before its launch last week, after a technical snag was discovered in the unmanned launch vehicle system. The glitch was with the critical cryogenic stage, the last such stage space vehicles enter just before they are about to launch.
Chandrayaan-2's success will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to pull off a soft landing on the moon. ISRO's budget is less than 20 times that of NASA. The success of the mission would be a giant boost for India's space plans.