India’s first lunar landing mission will be launched on Monday after its original lift-off date was aborted due to a technical snag, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Thursday.
The unmanned mission called Chandrayaan-2 will be launched on Monday at 2:43 p.m. (0913 GMT) from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota, ISRO said.
An expert committee had identified the root cause of the technical snag and “all corrective actions” have been taken, the ISRO said.
“Chandrayaan-2 is ready to take a billion dreams to the moon – now stronger than ever before” ISRO said on twitter, referring to the billion-plus Indian population.
The mission would make India the fourth country after the U.S., the former Soviet Union and China to successfully pull off a soft-landing on the Moon.
India’s first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, launched in 2008, orbited the moon but did not land.
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Costing 142 million dollars, Chandrayaan-2 – which means ‘moon vehicle’ in Sanskrit – comprises an orbiter, lander and rover.
Chandrayaan-2 is expected to touch down on the unexplored lunar south pole in September to carry out experiments, map its surface and search for water.
The rescheduled launch comes sooner than was expected.
Local media reported that the lift-off could take weeks or months before the problem was addressed and an appropriate launch window determined.
The mission was called off early Monday, 56 minutes before launch, after a technical problem was detected in its launch vehicle.
Although ISRO has not specified the technical issue, broadcaster NDTV citing sources, reported the problem involved the critical cryogenic stage, the last such stage space vehicles enter just before they are about to launch.
Had this problem not been rectified, the mission would end in a “total failure,” it said.
Highly flammable liquid hydrogen and oxygen used in the cryogenic stage were removed from the rocket and the problem was then addressed with the “tightening of an errant component,” the report said. (NAN)
