A week after the Chandrayaan-2 lift-off was called of due to a technical glitch at the last momet, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now ready to launch India’s second mission to the Moon at 2:43 PM today, July 22 from the second launchpad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, over 100km from Chennai.
India’s second Moon odyssey comes 11 years after ISRO’s successful first lunar mission Chandrayaan 1, which had created history by creating as many as 3,400 orbits around Moon. Chandrayaan 2 is a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan 1, which helped confirm the presence of water/hydroxyl on the Moon in 2009.
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Launch of Chandrayaan 2 by GSLV MkIII-M1 Vehicle https://t.co/P93BGn4wvT
— ISRO (@isro) July 22, 2019
02:42 PM | A minute left to the launch
01:15 PM | Tamil Nadu soil instead of NASA soil for tests reduced costs
Former Isro scientist M Annadurai told IANS earlier that in order to recreate a Moon-like surface to test the rover, the organisation had an initial budget of Rs 25 crore. However, once Isro found an alternative to the NASA soil-like substance and replaced it with “anorthosite” rocks from Sithampoondi and Kunnamalai villages in Tamil Nadu, the cost came down drastically.
12:50 PM | Filling of liquid oxygen for cryogenic stage of 640-tonne rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV-Mk III), nicknamed Baahubali, completes.
#ISRO #Chandrayaan2
As our journey begins, do you know what is the distance of Moon from Earth? The average distance is 3, 84, 000 km, Vikram lander will land on Moon on the 48th day of the mission, which begins today.
Here’s different view of #GSLVMkIII-M1 pic.twitter.com/4LFEmT2xxZ— ISRO (@isro) July 22, 2019
12:40 PM | There is just two hours to go for the launch of Chandrayaan-2, India’s mission to the Moon.