ISRO launched its moon mission Chandrayaan-2, at the scheduled time of 2:43 PM on Monday, July 22, from Sriharikota. This moon-lander and rover mission aims to investigate the unexplored south pole of the Earth's moon. With Chandrayaan-2 India is aiming at a soft landing on the Moon, which, if successful, would make India just the fourth country after US, Russia and China to accomplish the feat. Due to a technical glitch, ISRO had delayed its launch on July 15. However, about 15 minutes after the launch on Monday, ISRO confirmed that the Chandrayaan-2 had successfully entered Earth's orbit
Here is the video:
ISRO is undertaking an ambitious moon mission and said that the Moon is the closest cosmic body at which space discovery can be attempted and documented. Dubbed as the most challenging mission undetaken by the ISRO, Chandrayaan 2 is a continuation of India's space exploration programmes. In the past, with Chandrayaan -1 and Mangalyaan, India has boosted it confidence and with Chandrayaan-2, it takes a lead to explore the unexplored. The main aim of the Chandrayaan 2 is to attempt to make a soft land on the Moon's surface, the aim is to make lander -Vikram and rover- Pragyan in a high plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N, at a latitude of about 70° south.
Some pictures of the launch:
Chandrayaan 2 has two main components - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) 'Bahubali' rocket and the Lunar module (orbiter, Lander 'Vikram' and rover 'Pragyan').
Bahubali - The 640-tonne GSLV Mk-III rocket stands 43 meters tall and has three stages for initial thrust, core booster, and cryogenic engine.
Lunar orbiter - The orbiter with eight payloads weighing 2310 kg, will orbit the moon with a lunar orbit of 100 km
Lander 'Vikram' - Named after India's space pioneer Vikram Sarabhai with four payloads, Vikram will land on the moon after separating from the orbiter and descend slowly up to 30km for a soft landing.
Rover 'Pragyan'- The six-wheeled rover with two payloads, will roam on the moon's surface
India's first spacecraft orbiting around the Moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface for to do chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic mapping of the Moon. The spacecraft carried 11 scientific instruments built in India, USA, UK, Germany, Sweden, and Bulgaria. The satellite made more than 3400 orbits around the moon and the mission was concluded when the communication with the spacecraft was lost on August 29, 2009.