Final countdown begins for Chandrayaan-2

Mangalore Today News Network

Sriharikota, July 14, 2019: India’s moment of moon glory is about to turn a dramatic glittering chapter. The final countdown has begun for the country’s most ambitious moon mission, the Chandrayaan-2 to lift off from Sriharikota early tomorrow, July 15, Monday morning, aboard a massive rocket launcher aptly called the ‘Baahubali’.

Incorporating a 2.4-tonne orbiter, a lander dubbed Vikram and a rover, Pragyaan, the indigenous moon mission is scheduled to take off at 2.51 am on Sunday, giving India enormous bragging rights. Standing 44 metres tall, ‘Baahubali’, a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (GSLV Mk III) is raring to go.

But the July 15 launch will be just the beginning of a 3.84 lakh km space odyssey to the Moon. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) had perfected that challenging task in 2008, when it scored a master stroke with the maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.

The challenge this time for Isro is huge: To demonstrate the ability to perfect a soft landing on the Moon and remotely operate a robotic rover on its surface.

As planned, if Isro manages to land Chandrayaan 2 on the Moon near its South Pole, it would be a world-beating feat. Post-launch, space buffs, both Indian and from around the world, will be riveted to the spacecraft’s trajectory over the next 50 days for the scheduled touchdown on September 6, 7 or 8.

Chandrayaan-1 had made a breakthrough discovery, indicating the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface. Version 2 will try to get deeper into this game-changing find. No country, not even the Americans and Russians had gone as far as the South Pole, and therein lies Isro’s hope.

In the run-up to the Monday morning’s historic launch, Isro had shifted GSLV MkIII-M1 to the launch pad on July 7.

The spacecraft was powered and subjected to a thorough health check. The full dress rehearsal-1 (FDR-1) followed the next day.