India successfully launched its second lunar mission ‘Chandrayaan-2’ On July 22, 2019 at 14:43 local time (09:13 GMT). A Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk-III) rocket blasted off from the spaceport at Sriharikota and released the lunar craft Chandrayaan-2 into the earth orbit after about 16 minutes. It will stay there for 23 days.
If successful, India will become the fourth nation to soft land on the Moon after the US, Russia and China.
India has lot of expectations from this low-cost space program. 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 includes lunar orbiter, Lander and a rover.
The objectives of this $145m (£116m) mission is to do the soft landing on moon, operate robotic rover and study lunar surface.
The orbiter will orbit the moon and will perform mapping from an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 miles).
Lander will be carrying the robotic rover and after detaching from the orbiter, it will make a soft landing on the lunar surface.
Rover is a six wheeled robotic vehicle. It will perform all the analysis.
