Kanyakumari: India’s second lunar exploration mission, Chandrayaan-II, which is all set for the launch in July this year, is significant as it has been planned to land in lunar south pole, the not much explored area of the moon’s surface, according to Isro chairman, Kailasavadivoo Sivan.
Elaborating to the media on the second lunar mission at Nagercoil here on Friday, the Isro chief said, “Chandrayaan-II is ready for launch during the window of July 9 to July 16 by the launch vehicle GSLV-MK III.” The second lunar mission expected to land two months later by September from the date of the launch on July would be historically significant as it is planned to soft land a rover near south pole of the moon, which has not been explored much before by any of the countries whose moon mission landed near the equatorial area of the moon.
If landed successfully in the lunar south pole, it is expected that ISRO would get the opportunity to name that site on moon. “Thus the second lunar mission of India attracts the attention of the world,” said the Isro chief, Sivan, who added that two more ambitious programmes of Isro, Aditya--L1, the first Indian mission to study the sun and Gaganyaan, the manned mission to space, have been progressing well. While planning to launch Aditya--L1 in mid-2020, Isro has been in the process of accomplishing its manned mission to space by 2022. Before sending astronauts to space, Isro too has been working on the launch of two unmanned missions respectively in December 2020 and July 2021 under the ‘Gaganyaan’ programme.
