The glory of Chandrayaan 2

On July 22, 2019, Monday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its second moon mission named Chandrayaan-2. It is being referred to as the most powerful rocket till date with a plan to make its landing on the 7^th of September. The rocket shall explore the lunar south pole. This is happening exactly one week after the liftoff was aborted due to a technical snag. If the mission will be successful, which we all hope for, it shall be the most critical and important mission ever undertaken by ISRO. Consequently, India will become the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to land on the moon. The rocket is being referred to as Bahubali of India. At 2:43 pm the launch vehicle GSLV-MkIII-M1, lifted-off from the second launchpad at the spaceport into cloudy skies and placed Chandrayaan 2 of about 3,850 kg into the earth orbit almost 16 minutes later. This mission has been helmed by two women scientists of ISRO namely: Ms. Ritu Karidhal and Ms. M Vanitha. The former is Mission director whereas the latter is project director at ISRO. All across the nation are feeling proud and honoured of being Indians. President Ram Nath Kovind and PM Narendra Modi, congratulated the team on their grand success. PM Modi in his speech stated that this mission holds a lot of importance for India and it is purely “ Indian at heart” and “Indian in spirit”. Such efforts will indeed inspire and encourage the young minds towards science, top quality research and innovation. PM Modi himself watched the launch on a large screen and shared his message with the team at ISRO. This mission holds a lot of importance for India because it is said to explore the south pole region of lunar terrain, which has not been explored by any past mission so far. It is expected that the mission will result in new and useful insights. Earlier, it was to get launched on July 15^th, 2019 but unfortunately it was called off one hour before because of a glitch that was noticed by the scientists in the three stage rocket during the propellant filling phase. This mission is exploring the south pole region of the lunar terrain because it is an interesting surface to conduct research study on. It is expected that water may be present in areas around it. The seat gallery at ISRO with about 7500 seats was completely full with people who had come to witness the launch of Chandrayaan 2. This mission has been possible 11 years after ISRO's successful first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 which had scripted history by making more than 3,400 orbits around the Moon. Also, it was operational for 312 days till August 29. 

By: Madhuchanda Saxena

Link: https://www.news18.com/news/india/chandrayaan-2-launch-moon-mission-isro-live-less-than-two-hours-to-go-for-indias-second-date-with-the-moon-2240201.html