India assesses technical snag that aborted moon mission

NEW DELHI (AP) " India's space organization says it is examining the technical snag that led to the aborting of the launch of a spacecraft intended to land on the far side of the moon.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission was called off shortly before liftoff early Monday by the Indian Space Research Organization when a "technical snag" was observed in the 640-ton, 14-story rocket launcher.

Vivek Singh, the ISRO's media director, says the organization should be able to choose a new launch date within days. He declined to go into details.

Chandrayaan, the Sanskrit word for "moon craft," is designed for a soft landing on the lunar south pole and to send a rover to explore water deposits confirmed by a previous orbiting Indian space mission.