Moonshot 2 India's ‘Bahubali' Cryogenic Rocket Lifts Off With Chandrayaan-2

India’s second lunar mission was on track as its ‘Babubali’ GSLV rocket successfully put the moon spacecraft — Chandrayaan-2 — into the orbit in a copy book style on July 22.

- Venkatachari Jagannathan

SRIHARIKOTA (SOUTHERN INDIA).

India’s second lunar mission was on track as its ‘Babubali’ GSLV rocket successfully put the moon spacecraft — Chandrayaan-2 — into the orbit in a copy book style on July 22.

The Rs 375 crore (53.7 million), heavy lift GSLV-Mk III rocket slung the Rs 603 crore ($86 million), 3.8 tonne Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft in its intended earth parking orbit.

The 43.4 metre tall, 640-tonne rocket, nicknamed ‘Bahubali’, carried the 3.8-tonne Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, which will carry out India’s second mission to its closest celestial neighbour.

From here, it will be a long, over a one-and-a-half-month journey for Chandrayaan-2 as it will traverse the 384,400 km that separate Earth and its sole satellite.

President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated ISRO and its scientists, promising support for their ambitious dreams.

After the launch, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Sivan said: “Today is a historic day for science and technology in India. I am extremely happy to announce that GSLV-Mk III injected Chandrayaan-2 into the defined orbit. This is the beginning of a historical journey for India to land on the moon in the South Pole, to explore the unexplored.

“We had encountered a serious technical snag, but we fixed it. Team ISRO bounced back with flying colours. The team identified the root cause of the failure in 24 hours. The snag was fixed in 1.5 days and tests were made to check the systems. The expert team was on the job for the past seven days to check the systems.”