Moon mission: Isro fixes GSLV Mk-III cryogenic engine glitch, Chandrayaan-2 countdown begins

CHENNAI: A 20-hour countdown for the launch of India’s second moon mission – Chandrayaan-2 –onboard GSLV Mk-III, country’s most powerful rocket to date, started at 6.43pm on Sunday.
The launch is scheduled at 2.43pm on Monday from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The mission was earlier planned for July 15. However, the launch was aborted -- almost an hour before the planned 2.51am lift-off -- after Isro scientists identified a glitch while filing helium in the cryogenic engine of the rocket.
Isro chairman K Sivan, who was on his way to Sriharkota on Sunday morning, told reporters at Chennai airport that corrective measures had been taken and that the mission would be a success.
With Chandrayaan-2, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) aims at landing on the moon for the first time.
The spacecraft will carry an orbiter, a lander named Vikram, which will soft land on the unexplored south pole of the moon, and a rover named Pragyan, which will move around on the lunar surface for 14 earth days.
The 3.8-tonne spacecraft will carry a total of 14 payloads onboard its orbiter, lander and rover. The mission is aimed at finding more clues to the existence of water molecules and the evolution of the earth and the moon.
After the launch on Monday, Chandrayaan-2 will take around 47 days to travel and land on the moon in September. If the spacecraft makes a successful soft landing, India will be the fourth country to do so.