Chandrayaan-2 blasts off; Rover’s soft-landing on Moon on Sept 7

Sriharikota: The heavy-duty ‘Bahubali’ rocket more than made up for keeping the nation on tenterhooks by performing beyond expectations as it launched Chandrayaan-2 on its 3.844 lakh-km journey to the moon on a Monday afternoon.

Sixteen minutes after lift-off from the spaceport at Sriharikota, the GSLV MkIII rocket injected Chandrayaan-2 6,000 km deeper into its orbit that designed. This will save fuel and increase the life of the mission, Isro chairman K. Sivan said after the launch.

“It is the beginning of a historic journey,” Dr Sivan said who had led his team to spot the glitch that had resulted in the first launch being scrubbed on July 15.

Chandrayaan-2 will reach the lunar orbit on August 20 and the Moon on September 1. While the orbiter will spend a year surveying the Moon, the lander Vikram and the rover Pragyan are scheduled to soft-land on the moon’s south pole on September 7 and begin studies.

If they accomplish the mission, India will be the first country to soft-land on the lunar south pole and the fourth to reach the Moon after the US, Russia and China. All at a cost of a Rs 978 crore.

President Ram Nath Kovind led the nation in congratulating Isro scientists. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a series of tweets that “Every Indian is immensely proud today.” He said the mission is “Indian at heart, Indian in spirit!”

Earlier, the 43.43-m three-stage GSLV took off on the dot at 2.43 pm from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Nellore.

The launch comes a week after the first attempt at lift-off had been called off due to a helium gas leak in the cryogenic engine.

Isro scientists had worked overnight to figure out what caused the leak and fixed it in double-quick time. That engine performed flawlessly on Monday

Thousands of people standing at the special viewing gallery watched the GSLV-Mk III lift off majestically and enter the clouds within seconds, accompanied by a resounding roar.

They were joined by Indians from across the country who watched the event on live television.

The rocket injected the Rs 603-crore Chandrayaan-2 into a ‘parking’ orbit that is 169.7 km above the Earth at its closest and 45,475 km at its fastest.

In the course of the 48 days till September 7, the orbit of Chandrayaan-2 will be gradually raised and shifted to the lunar transfer trajectory.

Then, the spacecraft will be transferred to an orbit that is 100 km above the moon’s surface.

The mission will reach the moon on September 1 and undergo 15 crucial manoeuvres before landing. The orbiter on Chandrayaan-2 weighs 2,389-kg with eight payloads including one from Nasa, the lander Vikram 1,471 kg with four payloads and the rover Pragyan 27 kg with two payloads). Vikram is named in the memory of space pioneer Vikram Sarabhai and Pragyan means wisdom in Sanskrit. Vikram will detach from the orbiter four days after it reaches the lunar orbit. As it flies over the moon, it will take a series of pictures of its landing site. It will land on the moon after a complex series of applying brakes to reduce speed.

Vikram will be travelling at 2 metres per second when it lands on the moon. It will then release the six-wheel rover Pragyaan. Both the equipment will work for 14 lunar days or one full day on earth. The orbiter will conduct eight experiments from orbit for a year.

Vikram and Pragyaam both have the Tricolur painted on them. The Ashoka Chakra is imprinted on the rover’s wheels. Chandrayaan-2’s earth-bound phase of 17 days as been revised to 23 days as per the new schedule because of the delay in the launch.