‘Bounced Back With Flying Colours’: ISRO Chief on Chandrayaan-2

The mission was aborted on 15 July due to a ‘technical snag’ in the GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle.

FIle image of ISRO chief K Sivan.

(Photo: PTI)

“After that technical snag we had, we fixed it and now ISRO has bounced back with flying colours,” said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Sivan after India launched its second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 on Monday, 22 July, at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Chandrayaan-2 lifted off the second launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, a week after the launch was aborted due to a ‘technical snag’.

“I’m extremely happy to announce that the GSLV MkIII-M1 successfully injected Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into Earth Orbit. It is the beginning of a historic journey of India towards moon & to land at a place near South Pole to carry out scientific experiments.”

K Sivan, ISRO Chief

‘Bounced Back With Flying Colours’

Minutes after the launch, Sivan in his address, said, “After that technical snag we had, we fixed it and now ISRO has bounced back with flying colours.”

He continued, “Immediately after the technical snag absorbed, the entire ISRO team swung into action. In fact, the work done in the following 24 hours in the centre was mind-boggling. They identified the root-cause of the snag, corrected it, all in 24 hours.”

He said that in the following days, experiments were carried out, and only then was it handed over to the management for taking further action.

“This mammoth task was possible because of hard work of the team, especially, the engineers, technical assistants, technicians, support staff of SDSG, BSSE, LPC IPRC who worked continuously, sacrificing their time to ensure the snag was fixed properly,” he added.

‘15 Crucial Manoeuvres in Next 45 Days’

The ISRO chairman said that the mission has three components stacked into a single launch.

He said, “This time, there are two new systems which we have developed for the first time – Lander Vikram, Rover Pragyan.”

Talking about what will come next in the mission, he said. “The mission will have to do 15 very crucial manoeuvres in next one and a half months and finally bringing Chandrayaan-2 around the moon. After that, the D-day will start and that day we will ensure that the landing is done safely near (Moon’s) south pole.”

Congratulating his team for the rigorous work put in by them, he said, “The satellite team really burnt the midnight oil to make the Chandrayaan-2 as per the suggestions given by national committee. I am thankful to them and my best of wishes to them.”

ISRO’s Most Awaited Launch

Chandrayaan-2 aims at landing a rover on the uncharted Lunar South Pole. It was launched earlier on Monday with the country's most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle successfully injecting the spacecraft in the Earth Orbit.

The 43.43-metre tall three-stage rocket GSLV Mk III-M1 blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota into cloudy skies at 2:43 pm and about 16 minutes later released the 3,850 kg Chandrayaan-2 into the orbit.

The Vikram lander will land on the moon on the 48th day of the mission.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI).