India’s most ambitious unmanned mission to the moon was successfully launched on Monday, a week after the previous lift-off had to be halted due to a technical snag. India’s heaviest rocket Geo Synchronized Launch Vehicle Mark III, carrying the 3,850 kg Chandrayaan 2, a three-component spacecraft comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, blasted off from Indian Space Research Organization’s space port in Sriharikota, an island in Andhra Pradesh at 2.43 local time.
About 16 minutes later, the 43.43m rocket released the 3,850 kg Chandrayaan-2 into the orbit. The injection of the Chandrayaan-2 into the Earth orbit marks the successful accomplishment of the first phase of the ambitious mission that will take about 48 days to land on the moon surface. ISRO Chairman K Sivan said "I am extremely happy to announce that GSLV Mark 3 successfully injected the Chandrayaan 2 into orbit... It is the beginning of a historical journey for India... We fixed a serious technical snag and ISRO bounced back with flying colours."
The mission, that will traverse 384,000 km before landing on the moon’s south pole, an unexplored region of the celestial body, on September 6 to explore lunar soil looking for possible presence of minerals, helium, a source of energy, and revalidate the findings of traces of water there by India’s first moon mission in October 2008.
Chandrayan 2 is also expected to make significant findings about the origin and evolution of the solar system, including the earth and the moon. The previous launch attempt of Chandrayan 2 was stopped about an hour before its lift-off on July 15 after a technical snag was discovered in the rocket. The glitch was with the critical cryogenic stage, the last such stage space vehicles enter just before they are about to launch.
The launch of the nearly Rs 1,000-crore Chandrayaan-2's put India in an exclusive club of four countries after the US, Russia and China to make a soft landing on the moon. The launch of Chandrayan 2 took place at the end of a 20-hour countdown that started at 6.43 p.m Sunday evening. The three-component Chandrayaan-2 comprising an orbiter, a lander and a rover will undergo 15 crucial manoeuvres before landing on the moon, ISRO said.
While the Orbiter will orbit the moon for about a year, the lander is expected to make a soft landing between two craters on the lunar surface before the rover comes out of the lander and conducts experiments. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the successful launch of the country’s second unmanned mission to the moon as a “special moment” that will be “etched in the annals of our glorious history.”
“Special moments that will be etched in the annals of our glorious history! The launch of Chandrayaan 2 illustrates the prowess of our scientists and the determination of 130 crore Indians to scale new frontiers of science. Every Indian is immensely proud today!” Modi tweeted. In a series of tweets thereafter, he said “Indian at heart, Indian in spirit! What would make every Indian overjoyed is the fact that Chandrayaan 2 is a fully indigenous mission. It will have an Orbiter for remote sensing the Moon and also a Lander-Rover module for analysis of lunar surface.
He said Chandrayaan 2 “is unique because it will explore and perform studies on the south pole region of lunar terrain which is not explored and sampled by any past mission. This mission will offer new knowledge about the Moon.” “Efforts such as Chandrayaan 2 will further encourage our bright youngsters towards science, top quality research and innovation. Thanks to Chandrayaan, India’s Lunar Programme will get a substantial boost. Our existing knowledge of the Moon will be significantly enhanced,” said another tweet by Modi.
