Indian ISRO halts the launch of lunar mission Chandrayaan-2
India’s space agency said it delayed the launch of its second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, in the early hours of Monday due to a “technical snag” which was observed less than an hour before the scheduled liftoff.
India wants the Chandrayaan-2 – or Moon Chariot 2 – mission to make it only the fourth country after Russia, the United States and China to land a craft on the lunar surface.
Countdown at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre was halted 56 minutes and 24 seconds before the planned liftoff at 2:51am (2121 GMT on Sunday).
“As a measure of abundant precaution, #Chandrayaan2 launch has been called off for today. Revised launch date will be announced later.”
Officials at the space centre on an island off the coast of Andhra Pradesh state said the problem was in the launch vehicle system.