Bengaluru, May 1: All modules of India's second moon mission "Chandrayaan-2", scheduled for launch in July, are getting ready and the lander is expected to touch down on the lunar surface in early September, the ISRO said Wednesday.
"The launch window is from July 9 to July 16 with an expected Moon landing on September 6," the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in an update on the mission, which was earlier scheduled for April launch.
An official of the space agency had last week said Chandrayaan-2 mission has been further postponed to July in the backdrop of Israel's unsuccessful attempt to land on Moon.
"We saw Israel's example and we don't want to take any risk. Despite Israel being such a technologically advanced country, the mission failed. We want the mission to be a success," he had said.
Earlier, Chandrayaan-2 was scheduled for launch in a window from January-February but ISRO had deferred it to March-April.
In its update Wednesday, the city-headquartered ISRO said the three modules -- Orbiter, Lander (Vikram) and Rover (Pragyan) of Chandrayaan-2 were getting ready for July launch.
The Orbiter and Lander modules will be interfaced mechanically and stacked together as an integrated module and accommodated inside the GSLV MK-III launch vehicle. The Rover is housed inside the Lander, it said in a statement.
The integrated module will reach the moon orbit using Orbiter propulsion module after its launch into earth bound orbit by GSLV MK-III.
It might take 35 to 45 days to reach the Moon after the launch.
Subsequently, the lander will separate from the orbiter and soft land at the predetermined site close to lunar South Pole, the space agency said.
The rover will roll out for carrying out scientific experiments on the lunar surface. Instruments would also be mounted on the Lander and Orbiter for carrying out scientific experiments, it said.
The ISRO is cautious about Chandrayaan-2, its first mission to land on any celestial body, as it is wary of failure after Israel's Beresheet spacecraft crashed during moon landing on April 11.
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Ranchi(PTI): The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has emerged as a surprise element in the Jharkhand assembly elections with its candidates leading in five of the six seats where the party is contesting, according to trends available on the Election Commission's website on Saturday.
RJD candidates in five assembly seats were leading over sitting BJP legislators.
In 2019, RJD had secured only the Chatra seat where its nominee Satyanand Bhokta won.
In Deoghar, RJD’s Suresh Paswan was leading by 19,581 votes over his nearest rival and BJP's sitting MLA Narayan Das after the third round of counting.
RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav was ahead by 19,867 votes in Godda over BJP MLA Amit Kumar Mandal after the sixth round of counting.
In Koderma, RJD nominee Subhash Prasad Yadav, who was out on bail, was leading by a margin of 3,471 votes over BJP’s sitting legislator Neera Yadav.
Subhas Prasad Yadav, considered to be one of the close aides of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in a money laundering case.
Party’s Naresh Prasad Singh was leading by 5,159 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP’s Bishrampur MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi.
RJD's Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav was also leading from Hussainabad by 8,213 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP MLA Kamlesh Kumar Singh.
Party’s candidate Rashmi Prakash, however, was trailing from Chatra by 3,776 votes.
Bhokta did not contest the elections this time, and his daughter-in-law Prakash was given a ticket.