Nellore: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) officially confirmed on Thursday that India’s second mission to the moon — Chandrayaan-2 — will be launched at 2.43 pm on July 22 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota range, Nellore.
The first attempt to launch Chandrayaan-2 at 2.51 am on July 15 was called off an hour before the launch owing to a leak in the rocket. An expert committee was constituted to analyse the issue and suggest remedial action.
The committee identified the root cause of the leak after which all corrective actions were implemented.
Thereafter, ISRO claims, its system performance has been normal.
Chandrayaan-2 will take off on board India’s heaviest satellite launch vehicle GSLV-Mk 111. It will be injected into a parking orbit 170 km above the earth at its closest and 40,400 km at its farthest. A series of maneuvers will be conducted to raise its orbit and put it on the Lunar Transfer Orbit.
Upon entering the moon’s sphere of influence, on-board thrusters will slow down the spacecraft for lunar capture. Chandrayaan-2’s orbit around the moon will be circularised to 100x100 km through a series of orbital manoeuvres. It is expected to land on the moon in September. The Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover are expecetd to work for a lunar day (14 earth days). Chandrayaan will send data for over a year.
