Chandrayaan-2: India Successfully Launches its Second Moon Mission

Chandrayaan-2: India Successfully Launches its Second Moon Mission

One of the most significant space missions of India, Chandrayaan-2 finally took flight, and the historical journey of India towards Moon has begun. The GSLV MkIII-M1 launched the 3840 kg Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into earth orbit at 22 July 2019.  It is now revolving around the Earth with a perigee of 169.7 km and an apogee of 45,475 km.

Chandrayaan-2 aims to advance and demonstrate the key technologies for end-to-end lunar mission ability comprising soft-landing and roving on the lunar surface.

On the science front, this mission will develop our understanding of the Moon through a comprehensive study of its topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, thermo-physical properties and more.

Chandrayaan-2 comes 11 years after ISRO's successful first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 that created history by making more than 3,400 orbits around the Moon. It was operational for 312 days till August 29, 2009.

This mission conducts a total of 13 payloads, including three from Europe, two from the US and one from Bulgaria, explores to bring improvement in the understanding of Moon that could lead to discoveries, and it will benefit India and humanity as a whole.

Fulfilling the dreams of country's ambitious low-cost space program, it is the most complex and prestigious mission ever undertaken by the Indian Space Research Organisation, if successful, will also make India the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to take a soft landing on the moon.