ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 mission to launch in October instead of April
According to media reports, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is likely to launch its second lunar mission, called Chandrayaan-2, to the moon's South Pole only in October. Earlier, the mission was slated to be launched in April, with ISRO chairman K Sivan stating that the window for the mission launch will be open until November. Here is more on it.
We do not want to be in a hurry: ISRO
An ISRO official said that several tests were yet to be done, adding that further delays cannot be ruled out if systems were still not in place by October. "We do not want to be in a hurry," he said. Interestingly, if the mission does launch in October, it will coincide with the 10th anniversary of Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar mission.
ISRO's first attempt to land rover on any celestial body
Chandrayaan-2 is an indigenous project that will carry an orbiter (with a one-year mission span), a lander, and a rover (with a 15-day mission span) to the moon. It will be ISRO's first mission aiming to land a rover on a celestial body and is expected to cost Rs. 800 crore. It will use the GSLV Mark 2 rocket for the launch.
Chandrayaan-2 will land on moon's South Pole
The mission aims to soft-land the moon rover on the lunar surface and gather data through it for analysis. Unlike NASA's famous Apollo mission, ISRO will land the rover near the South Pole of the moon instead of its equatorial region. If successful, it will be the first lunar mission globally to execute that.
