Chandrayaan-2: Indian Space Launch Delayed An Hour Before Commencing

CAIRO – 15 July 2019: Chandrayaan-2, India’s anticipated second lunar exploration mission after Chandrayaan-1, has been halted an hour before its launching time due to technical difficulties on July 15, 2019.

According to the Indian Space Agency, the countdown was blocked 56 minutes before the launch, after “a technical snag was observed in the launch vehicle system.” Chandrayaan-2 was scheduled to launch on Monday, from Sriharikota space station on India's eastern coast; however, due to the setback of the launch, a new launch date will be released.

K Sivan, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), stated that “this was the most complex space mission to be undertaken by the agency.”
For the people in India, the Chandrayaan-2 space program is a demonstration of India’s emerging technological capabilities. Chandrayaan-2 is the first space mission to conduct a soft-landing on the moon’s south pole, a region of the moon that has never been explored by any country before.

Chandrayaan-2’s mission is to demonstrate the ability to soft-land on the lunar surface, and operate a robotic rover on the surface. Costing over $150 million, the Indian space project is set to study lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere, and signatures of hydroxyl, and water ice.

Chandrayaan-2’s space team consists of over 1000 engineers and scientists, but for the first time the ISRO has chosen women to lead a preliminary expedition. Two women are driving India’s journey to the moon,navigated by RituKaridhal. Doctor Sivan said, “Women power is powering India’s Moon ambitions.” He also added that at ISRO, “women and men are all equal. Only talent matters – not the gender.”

Despite the fact that if Chandrayaan-2 is to be successful, India will be the fourth country in the world to soft-land on the moon,critics have established that they would prefer to see India’s poverty tackled instead.