India’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 with a lander and rover will be attempted in mid-April, Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chairman K. Sivan said today.
“We are targeting mid-April to launch Chandrayaan-2 as there were certain tests which could not be done in time for the earlier scheduled January 3 launch,” Sivan said.
The 3,890-kg Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft will orbit around the moon to study its conditions and collect data of its topography, mineralogy and exosphere. The window to land on the lunar surface is open between March 25 till the end of April. The Rs 800-crore Chandrayaan-2 mission comes a decade after Chandrayaan-1 was launched in October 2008.