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Indian Mission Chandrayaan-2 on the Moon
SRIHARIKOTA, INDIA: India drastically canceled Monday the launch of a rocket to land a probe on the moon less than an hour before takeoff, due to a "technical" problem.
India would like the Chandrayaan-2 mission – or Moon Chariot 2 – to be only the fourth country after Russia, the United States and China to land a craft on the lunar surface.
The countdown at the Satish Dhawan Space Center was stopped 56 minutes and 24 seconds before the scheduled takeoff at 02:51 (Bangkok time).
"A technical hitch was observed in the launcher system at the 56 minute," said the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Twitter.
"As a precautionary measure, the launch of # Chandrayaan2 has been canceled for today and the revised launch date will be announced later."
Space center officials on an island off the coast of Andhra Pradesh said the problem was with the launcher system.
ISRO had announced an hour before launch that the liquid hydrogen filling was complete.
The agency did not specify when a new launch could take place.
– Low cost flyer –
The attention paid to the Indian mission had increased while the launch was to take place just five days before the 50th anniversary of the Moon Walk in the American history of Neil Armstrong.
India had spent about $ 140 million for the preparation of Chandrayaan-2 and had praised the mission as one of the least expensive of all time.
A landing on the moon was scheduled for September 6th.
In comparison, the United States spent about $ 25 billion – the equivalent of more than $ 100 billion in current prices – in 15 Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s.
Almost all of Chandrayaan-2's orbiters, landing gear and rovers have been designed and manufactured in India.
India had prepared its most powerful rocket, the GSLV Mk III, to carry the 2.4-tonne orbiter. The orbiter was to continue circling the moon for about a year, taking pictures of the surface and sending back information about the atmosphere.
The orbiter was supposed to transport Vikram, a 1.4 ton lander, which in turn was to carry the 27-kg Pragyan mobile in a high plain between two craters at the lunar south pole.
The solar-powered rover can travel up to 500 meters and had to constantly return images and data during a lunar day, the equivalent of 14 terrestrial days.
Pragyan will search for water signs and analyze lunar rocks and soil.
The first lunar mission of India in 2008 – Chandrayaan-1 – did not land on the moon but did a search for water using radar.
A soft landing on the Moon would be a huge step forward in the Indian space program. National pride is at stake, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi having promised that a human mission in space would be launched by 2022.
India also has the ambition to pose a probe on Mars. In 2014, India became the fourth country to put a satellite into orbit around the red planet.
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