{"id":13071,"date":"2019-07-19T00:21:45","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T16:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/indian-moon-launch-rescheduled-for-monday\/"},"modified":"2019-07-19T00:21:45","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T16:21:45","slug":"indian-moon-launch-rescheduled-for-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/indian-moon-launch-rescheduled-for-monday\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian moon launch rescheduled for Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The GSLV Mk.3 launcher awaiting liftoff with the Chandrayaan 2 lunar mission. Credit: ISRO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

India\u2019s robotic Chandrayaan 2 moon mission is set for liftoff Monday after a technical snag last weekend halted the launch from a spaceport on the Indian coast, ISRO said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The three-piece moon mission, comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, was set for blastoff last Sunday aboard India\u2019s GSLV Mk.3 rocket. But a technical problem on the GSLV Mk.3\u2019s cryogenic upper stage forced officials to call off the launch in the final hour of the countdown.<\/p>\n

Reports from Indian media suggested the problem, apparently related to the cryogenic stage\u2019s helium pressurization system, proved relatively easy to fix.<\/p>\n

The Indian Space Research Organization announced the new target launch date in a tweet early Thursday. ISRO faces a short launch window to get the Chandrayaan 2 mission off the ground, and still have time for the spacecraft to reach its planned landing site in early September.<\/p>\n

Liftoff is set for 0913 GMT (5:13 a.m. EDT) Monday from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, located on Sriharikota Island on India\u2019s southeastern coast around 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Chennai.<\/p>\n

Around 16 minutes after liftoff, the 142-foot-tall (43.4-meter) GSLV Mk.3 rocket will loft the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft into an elliptical orbit around Earth, ranging as high as 24,000 miles (39,000 kilometers) at its farthest point.<\/p>\n

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The Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft will launch with its orbiter and lander sections attached together. Once in lunar orbit, the two segments will split apart to conduct their separate missions. Credit: ISRO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chandrayaan 2 will use its own propulsion system to raise its orbit over the following weeks, eventually flying high enough to intercept the moon next month. The spacecraft will conduct a series of rocket burns to first slip into orbit around the moon, the lower its altitude to reach a 62-mile-high (100-kilometer) orbit before separating the lander module to begin a descent to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

For a July 14 launch, mission planners designed a transit lasting 53 or 54 days from liftoff until touchdown of Chandrayaan 2\u2019s Vikram lander near the lunar south pole.<\/p>\n

ISRO has not announced any change to Chandrayaan 2\u2019s landing date, which was scheduled for Sept. 6 or 7. Officials could shorten the transit time by reducing the number of orbits during Chandrayaan 2\u2019s orbit-raising phase around Earth, and the spacecraft could spend less time in lunar orbit before releasing the lander.<\/p>\n

A landing in early September is required to ensure Chandrayaan 2\u2019s Vikram lander touches down soon after sunrise at the landing site in the moon\u2019s southern highlands. The solar-powered lander and its mobile rover are designed to function for about 14 days, the time the sun spends above the horizon on the moon.<\/p>\n

The Chandrayaan 2 mission could target a landing date later this year, but that could require a launch delay of weeks or months.<\/p>\n

The Chandrayaan 2 orbiter, fitted with its own scientific instruments, is designed for a mission of at least one year. Among other scientific tasks, the orbiter will take high-resolution images of the moon and use a dual-frequency radar to help identify water ice deposits inside the moon\u2019s permanently-shadowed polar craters.<\/p>\n

India is aiming to become the fourth nation to successful accomplish a soft-landing on the moon, after landings by the Soviet Union, the United States and China.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The GSLV Mk.3 launcher awaiting liftoff with the Chandrayaan 2 lunar mission. Credit: ISRO India\u2019s robotic Chandrayaan 2 moon mission is set for liftoff Monday after a technical snag last weekend halted the launch from a spaceport on the Indian coast, ISRO said Thursday. The three-piece moon mission, comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2442,1259,1680,2587,301,525,25,625],"class_list":["post-13071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-chandrayaan-2","tag-gslv","tag-gslv-mk-3","tag-gslv-mk-3-m1","tag-india","tag-isro","tag-launch","tag-moon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}