ISROS’s mega launch of Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the Moon, has been put to hold just minutes ahead of its scheduled launch. A revised launch date for the mission will be announced soon.
A “technical snag” was observed just an hour ahead of its launch. Chandrayaan 2 suffered a glitch in the early hours of July 15, and so ISRO took to the decision to call off the launch for the time being as a measure of abundant precaution.
The entire country had been anticipating the big launch; President Ram Nath Kovind had also flown to Sriharikota to witness the launch. As the timer stopped with 56.24 minutes to go for the lift-off, confusion waved in among the media and the people who were present to witness the historic moment. Later it was announced from the control room that the launch had been held back due to a technical glitch.
The launch of Chandrayaan 2 had suffered a lot of sets back since 2018. It was then rescheduled to be relaunched within January–February of 2019 but failed too. And now just an hour before the launch, the mission got aborted.
The technical snag was noticed. We first have to approach the vehicle to assess the problem. First, we have to empty the fuel loaded in the rocket, then the rocket will be taken back for further investigation,” an ISRO official told IANS – ISRO official
He added, “This process will take 10 days after that only we can decide on the launch schedule,”
Chandrayaan 2 was supposed to launch on the far side of the Moon to shed light on the utterly unexplored section of the lunar expedition that will help the researcher have an intricate understanding of the origin and evolution of the Moon. Such a mission might have helped ISRO discover if there are any presence of water molecules on the Moon and the new rock types with unique chemical composition.
After all rehearsals, an anti-climax showed up to the historic moment.
