NEW DELHI – India will make a new bid to launch a landmark mission to theMoon on Monday, a week after aborting lift-off at the last minute becauseof a fuel leak, officials said.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said it had rescheduled thelaunch of Chandrayaan-2, or Moon Chariot-2, for 2:43 pm (0913 GMT) onMonday.
India is aiming to become just the fourth nation after Russia, the UnitedStates and China to land a spacecraft on the Moon.
Indian space chiefs called off the planned launch of the rocket 56 minutesbefore blast-off on Monday morning because of what ISRO called a “technicalsnag”.
Media reports quoted ISRO scientists saying a helium fuel leak had beendetected.
India has spent about $140 million on preparations for the project, whichis one of the cheapest among international space powers.
By comparison, the United States spent about $25 billion — the equivalentof more than $100 billion in current prices — on 15 Apollo missions in the1960s and 70s.
The rocket will launch from a space centre in Sriharikota, an island offthe coast of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
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It will carry an orbiter, lander and a rover which has been almost entirelydesigned and made in India.
The orbiter is meant to keep circling the Moon for about one year, takingpictures of the surface and sending back information on the atmosphere.
A lander named Vikram will take the rover to the surface near the lunarSouth Pole.
India’s first lunar mission in 2008 — Chandrayaan-1 — did not land on theMoon, but carried out a search for water using radar.
A soft landing on the Moon would be a huge leap forward in India’s spaceprogramme, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi determined to launch a mannedmission into space by 2022.
India also has ambitions to land a probe on Mars. In 2014, India becameonly the fourth nation to put a satellite into orbit around the Red Planet.-APP/AFP
