Chandrayaan-2 launch successful, 'Bahubali' GSLVMk-3 places payload in GTO precisely

New Delhi, July 22: ISRO chief Dr K Sivan on Monday confirmed that the GSLV-Mk-3 launch vehicle injected the spacecraft which carries of orbitor, lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan) sucessfully in the Geosynchronous Trasfer Orbit (GTO sucessfully). With this, the Chandrayaan-2 launch phase has been sucessfully accomplished.

After the mission control announced that the spacecraft has been seperated from the launch vehicle, Dr Sivan got up from his seat to confirm the signal from satellite which would technically confirm that it was in the right orbit. He waited for a few seconds, and a wide smile broke out on his determined face. He hugged the ISRO engineers near him and walked up to the podium.

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"GSLV-Mk-3 has placed the satellite in Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit successfully. It is the beginning of a historic journey of India towards moon and to land at a place near South Pole to carry out scientific experiments," said ISRO chief Dr K Sivan.

ISRO control room erupted with claps when signal from satellite was received.

Sivan heaped praise on scientists who fixed the glitch due to which July15 launch was cancelled. He said the glitch was fixed in 24 hours.

"After it was cancelled, everyone was determined to fixed it. Scientists forgot their families and worked to fix the fault which was done in just 24 hours. Remaining days were used to carryout checks," he said.

" We fixed the snag and bounced back with flying colours. The work done in the next 24 hours after the snag was mind boggling. Corrections were made, tests were done and confirmed. This was made possible by the experts and it is my duty to salute them," he added.

He said the entire team would now wait for orbital manouvers which will take spacecraft closer to the moon.

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"Task is not over. Next challenge is to land the lander Vikram on moon surface," he added.

He finally congratulated all those involved in the mission and ended his brief speech with "Jai Hind".

GSLV-Mk-III blasted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) precisely at 2.43 pm with 3290 kilograms payload. It injected the spacecraft into GTO about 16 minutes later.