India to launch second moon mission on July 15

Bengaluru, June 12 (IANS) India would launch its second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, on July 15 from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh and land its rover on the lunar surface on September 6, a top official said on Wednesday."The 3,890 kg Chandrayaan-2 mission will be launched on board a heavy rocket from our spaceport at Sriharikota on July 15 at 2:15 a.m., with an orbiter, lander and rover," state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Sivan told reporters here.The cost of the Chandrayaan-2 mission is Rs 978 crore, including Rs 375 crore for the heavy rocket, the Geo-stationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-Mark III).The mission will have 14 scientific instruments (payloads), including 8 in the orbiter, 4 in the lander and 2 in the rover."The rocket will place the orbiter in the geo-transfer orbit for its voyage to the lunar orbit, covering the vast distance (385,000 km) from earth to moon in 50 days for the lander to have a soft landing near its south pole on September 6," Sivan said.
--IANS fb/arm