Chandrayaan-2 Launch LIVE: India Gears Up for Second Moon Mission, Week After ISRO Aborted Attempt

The countdown to the launch of Chadnryaan-2 began yesterday and the moon mission lift-off is scheduled for 2:43 pm today from Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota. 

🇮🇳 #ISROMissions 🇮🇳
The launch countdown of #GSLVMkIII-M1/#Chandrayaan2 commenced today at 1843 Hrs IST. The launch is scheduled at 1443 Hrs IST on July 22nd.
More updates to follow... pic.twitter.com/WVghixIca6

— ISRO (@isro) July 21, 2019

One of the major challenges ISRO faced when the launch was aborted was to ensure that they got the current window of September 6-7 to land on the moon. This meant the team had to do reverse engineering and work backwards to make modifications to the mission. 

ISRO has announced that the filling of N204 for the liquid core state (L110) of the GSLVMkIII M1 has been completed today at 2:40 am, ahead of the launch of Chandryaan-2.

Filling of N204 for the liquid core stage (L110) of #GSLVMkIII-M1 completed today (22.07.2019) at 0240 hrs IST#Chandrayaan2 #ISRO

— ISRO (@isro) July 22, 2019

No Change in Date of Moon Landing | Despite the delay, there is no change in the September 6 date on which the lander and rover modules of the mission would land on the Moon. Since there would now be 48 days between launch and landing instead of the orignal 54 days, the path it would take would be different. According to the revised flight sequence, Chandrayaan-2 would spend 23 days in the Earth’s orbit instead of 17 in the original schedule.

News agency PTI quoted ISRO chairman K Sivan as saying Sunday that Chandrayaan-1 had revealed the presence of water molecules on the Moon and that there were possibilities of the latest mission returning successful scientific experiments.“It is because of these reasons that Chandrayaan-2 has attracted attention not only from Indian scientists but also global scientists,” Sivan told reporters at the Chennai airport during a stopover enroute to Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, the launch site.

The 43.43m tall three-stage rocket dubbed 'Baahubali' for its ability to carry heavy payloads would blast-off carrying Chandrayaan-2 and inject the spacecraft into Earth orbit about 16 minutes later. "Chandrayaan 2 is ready to take a billion dreams to the Moon now stronger than ever before! Join us for the launch on Monday 22 July, 2019 at 2:43 PM IST," ISRO had tweeted on July 18 while announcing the rescheduled launch.

A Wait of 11 Years | Chandrayaan-2 comes 11 years after ISRO's successful first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 which scripted history by making more than 3,400 orbits around the Moon and was operational for 312 days till August 29, 2009. On the eve of launch, ISRO Chairman K Sivan said all preparations were on and the glitch had been rectified.

ISRO to Live Stream Chandrayaan-2 Launch | The ISRO will live stream the launch of India's second Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, across its social media platforms for the world to see. However, if one does not have access to the Internet, unfolding of the momentous occasion can be watched on the Doordarshan. The TV channel will show visuals from inside ISRO's control centre room with commentary. 

The Rs 978 crore mission will be launched at 2.43 pm from the second launchpad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, over 100 km from Chennai. The unmanned mission will consist of a Pragyan Rover – a 6-wheeled AI-powered that translates to 'wisdom' in Sanskrit. It can travel up to 500m and leverages solar energy for its functioning. It can only communicate with the Lander.

India's 2nd Moon Mission | Chandrayaan-2 is India's second moon mission seeking to explore the unchartered Lunar south pole by landing a rover. It will be launched onboard its most powerful rocket GSLV-Mk0III-M1 this afternoon. Chandrayaan-2 will consist of the Orbiter that will observe the lunar surface and relay communication between Earth and Chandrayaan-2's Lander — Vikram. 

Why Chandrayaan-2 Was Aborted on July 15 | Mission Chandrayaan-2 was called off an hour before its lift-off on July 15. The abortion was carried out after the ISRO discovered lack of pressure in the helium tanks of the rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV-Mk III). Soon after, the ISRO decided July 22 as the new launch date.

Chandrayaan-2 Launch Today | After aborting the mission on July 15, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all geared up to launch its second Moon landing mission Chandrayaan-2 today. Mission Chandrayaan-2 will be launched onboard the GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The lift-off is scheduled at 2.43pm IST, and will be live streamed by ISRO on all its platforms.