India begins journey to Moon’s South Pole

Sriharikota: Aiming to take a “billion dreams to the moon”, India on Monday successfully launched its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 on board its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 from the spaceport here to explore the uncharted south pole of the celestial body by landing a rover.

The geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here into cloudy skies at 2.43 pm and successfully placed the 3,850-kg Chandrayaan-2 into the earth orbit 16 minutes and 14 seconds later.

Immediately after Chandrayaan-2’s separation from the rocket, the solar array of the spacecraft automatically got deployed and the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network at Bengaluru successfully took control of the spacecraft, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement later.

According to the statement, Chandrayaan-2, a three-module spacecraft comprising orbiter, lander and rover, will be subjected to a series of orbit manoeuvres using its onboard propulsion system to take it to the vicinity of Moon over the next weeks with the rover soft landing planned on September 7.

The success of the mission, helmed by two women Ritu Karidhal (Mission Director) and M Vanitha (Project Director), brought huge relief to ISRO scientists after the July 15 launch was called off just about an hour left following a technical glitch in the rocket.

The Rs 978 crore mission, that will mark a giant leap in India’s space programme and make it only the fourth country to land a rover on Moon, was rescheduled to Monday after scientists corrected the technical glitch in the three-stage rocket.

In a textbook launch, the towering GSLV-MkIII-M1, in its first operational flight, lifted off majestically from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, over 100 km from Chennai, as the scientists broke into jubilation.

“Chandrayaan-2 is unique because it will explore and perform studies on the South Pole region of lunar terrain, which is not explored and sampled by any past mission. This mission will offer new knowledge about the moon,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a congratulatory tweet.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, chief ministers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu K Vijayan and K Palaniswami, respectively and Kerala Governor P Sathasivam were among those who congratulated the ISRO for the feat.

Scientists led by ISRO chief K Sivan watched the launch sequence in rapt attention and broke into applause after every key stage of the rockets flight which progressed precisely as programmed. A visibly relieved Sivan, who announced the success of the mission, said, “It is the beginning of a historical journey of India towards the moon”. “Today is a historical day for Space Science and Technology in India. I am extremely happy to announce that GSLV MkIII-M1 successfully injected Chandrayaan-2 into an orbit of 6,000 km more than the intended orbit…,” he said.

“We bounced back in flying colours after the earlier technical snag,” he said about the glitch that made the space agency reschedule the Chandrayaan-2 launch from July 15 to Monday.

There will be 15 “very crucial manoeuvres” in the next one and half months before the orbiter is brought around the moon, he said in his post-launch address from mission control centre. “After that the D-Day will come and on that day we are going to experience 15 minutes of terror, to ensure the landing is safely near the South Pole,” he added.

ISRO had last week called off the launch with just 56 minutes of the countdown left, a decision that was later hailed by space experts as a prudent measure not to risk the mission.

After taking remedial action based on an analysis carried out by a team set up to look into the snag, the space agency announced the rescheduled lift-off four days ago, indicating the confidence of the scientists which stood vindicated with the successful launch.

“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.

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.

Billed as the most complex and prestigious mission undertaken by ISRO since its inception, Chandrayaan-2 will make India the fourth country to soft land a rover on the lunar surface after Russia, the United States and China.