India's indigenous moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh on Monday afternoon.
The spacecraft took off at 2.43 pm, exactly a week after the mission was aborted after a technical snag was detected less than an hour before the launch. In the run-up to the launch, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), on its Twitter, gave regular updates about preparations.
ISRO chief K Sivan on Sunday said that the Chandrayaan-2 will perform 15 crucial manoeuvres in the days to come. He added that all the preparatory work regarding the launch has been completed, and technical glitches that developed in the first attempt have been rectified.
The ISRO chief said that the spacecraft will be landing on the moon very slowly. "It will land on the South Pole. There is a lot of scientific testing to be done regarding the mission. Scientists around the world are looking forward to the launch," Sivan had said. Today, people in Kanpur city offered prayers at a temple for the mission's success.
ISRO had successfully completed the launch rehearsal of the Chandrayaan-2 mission on Saturday. Chandrayaan-2 will explore a region of Moon where no mission has ever set foot. The spacecraft consists of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover together referred to as "composite body". The probe's total mass is 3.8 ton and is expected to land on the Moon's south polar region on September 6 or 7 this year.
It will be the first Indian expedition to attempt a soft landing on the lunar surface. This mission will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia, and China to carry out a soft landing on Moon.
