NEW DELHI – The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had planned tolaunch its Chandrayaan-2 mission on April 23. However, the space agencydecided to postpone the moon mission citing the requirement of more time inorder to be confident about “a perfect mission”, India today has reported.

‘Panel recommended postponing the launch till we complete all tests’. “Ourpanel of eminent space scientists comprising former ISRO chairmen, spaceexperts and IIT professors has praised our preparations for the mission,” ISROChairman Dr K Sivan told TOI.link>

However, keeping in mind the complexities involved in the mission as forthe first time ISRO is experimenting with a orbiter, a rover and a lander,the panel recommended postponing the launch till we complete all tests andare confident of a perfect mission.

Dr Sivan went on to explain that tests for Chandrayaan-2 would take around20 more days which would make them miss the initial April 23 date.

He added that unlike other missions, it wasn’t possible to just defer thelaunch for one or two days as the ideal date for a moon launch comes justonce a month. So, if the right date is missed in one month, one must waitfor a whole month to get the next date for a perfect mission.

“After April, if ISRO launches the mission from May to September, we won’tbe able to utilise the full lunar day (14 Earth days) for experiments onthe moon because of eclipses. Therefore, ISRO will launch the mission inthe first week of October,” Dr Sivan said.