ISRO Chandrayaan-2 launched successfully

One of India's most ambitious space-based mission, Chandrayaan-2, took off from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota on 22 July 2019. The brainchild of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the mission will attempt to explore the south polar region of the Moon.

The 3840 kg spacecraft which was launched with the help of India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) MkIII-M1 is now revolving round the earth with a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 169.7 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 45,475 km. The Rs 978-crore Chandrayaan-2 is India's second mission to the moon. It comprises a fully indigenous Orbiter, Lander (Vikram) and Rover (Pragyan). The Rover Pragyan is housed inside Vikram lander and the spacecraft will take 48 days to accomplish the task of landing on the Moon through meticulously planned orbital phases.

The spacecraft has 13 payloads in total with eight of them in the orbiter, three payloads in Vikram lander and two in Pragyan rover. Five payloads are from India, three from Europe, two from the US and one from Bulgaria. A Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) of NASA is among the payloads and is aimed at understanding dynamics of Earth's Moon system and deriving clues on Lunar interior.

ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan congratulated the launch vehicle and satellite teams involved in this challenging mission. “This is the beginning of the historical journey of India towards Moon and to land at a place near south pole to carry out scientific experiments to explore the unexplored. On 15 July 2019 ISRO observed a technical snag, team ISRO worked out, fixed and corrected the snag within 24 hours. For the next one and a half days, the required tests were conducted to ensure that corrections made were proper and in right direction and with the successful launch, ISRO bounced back with flying colours.”

The mission objective of Chandrayaan-2 is to develop and demonstrate the key technologies for end-to-end lunar mission capability, including soft-landing and roving on the lunar surface. On the science front, this mission aims to further expand our knowledge about the Moon through a detailed study of its topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics and atmosphere leading to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the Moon.