Chennai, July 14 (UNI) The 20-hour countdown for the launch of
the prestigious second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, which will
take a billion dreams to the Moon, commenced at the spaceport
of Sriharikota on Sunday evening.
The countdown started at 1843 hrs today evening, ISRO tweeted.
'The launch countdown of #GSLVMkIII-M1/#Chandrayaan2
commenced today at 1843 hrs. The launch is scheduled at
1443 Hrs IST on July 22nd', the tweet said.
The launch preparations were progressing smoothly.
The 43.43 m tall GSLV-MkIII-M1, India's heaviest rocket thus
far, carrying the 3,850kg Chandrayaaan-2, with Orbiter, (Vikram)
-Lander and (Pragyan)-Rover as payloads for a soft landing on
the Moon's South pole, would lift off from the Second Launch
Pad at 1443 hrs on Monday afternoon.
ISRO said the Launch rehearsal has been completed and the
performance was normal.
The launch was earlier scheduled on July 15, but was deferred
an hour before the lift off off due to a technical snag in the
three-stage launch vehicle.
On July 18, ISRO announced that the expert committee identified
the root cause of the technical snag and all corrective actions were
implemented.
'Thereafter, the system performance is normal and Chandrayaan-2
launch is now rescheduled for July 22 at 1443 hrs', it said.
About 16 minutes after lift off, Chandrayaan-2 will be injected into an
earth parking 170.06 x 40,400 km orbit.
MORE UNI GV 1921