BENGALURU: Chandrayaan-2 launch, which was called off due to a technical snag on July 15, 2019, is now rescheduled at 2:43 pm on Monday, July 22, announced Indian Space Research Organisation in an official statement on Thursday morning.
Taking to social media, ISRO put an end to a long drawn trepidation, although spanning only a few days.
There were apprehensions among the scientist community if the launch would take place in the near future at all if the space organisation failed the optimal deadline of July 20, which would put the spacecraft in the desired point on the south polar region of the moon, which would make India only second to China to reach that region.
The 20-hour countdown was brought to a screeching halt an hour before the scheduled launch. While the officials were yet to give clarification as to what was the precise problem, officially, they only revealed that "A technical snag was observed in launch vehicle system at 1 hour before the launch. As a measure of abundant precaution, #Chandrayaan2 launch has been called off for today." on the launch night on July 14.
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The snag was detected while filling liquid oxygen in the cryogenic engine stage of GSLV MkIII-M1.
Indian Space Research Organisation official had also confirmed to TNIE that the ‘minor’ technical snag in Cryogenic Upper Stage of GSLV-MkIII, which forced authorities to call-off Chandrayaan-2 mission on Monday, was rectified.
A veteran scientist had told this reporter that no matter what the spacecraft ought to leave the lunar transfer trajectory (LTT) (the movement of the spacecraft from the Earth’s orbit towards the Moon’s orbit) by August 1,or T+17 or 17 days after the initially calculated launch at 2.51 am on July 15.
Visitors to the first launch have been asked to come back for the second attempt on July 22, they said.
The Rs 978 crore lunar mission, will not just try to understand the moon and its elements, especially the distribution of water, it is also seen as a precursor to India’s first-ever manned space mission, the Gaganyaan, in 2022.