India is looking to take a giant technological leap with a second unmanned mission to the moon, aimed at landing a rover near the unexplored south pole. The blast-off of Chandrayaan-2 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is scheduled at 2.51am local time on Monday (2121 GMT, Sunday).
A successful launch will be the first among several nail-biting steps planned ahead, which, if successful, will put India in a select group of spacefaring nations.
Chandrayaan-2 is a multistage moon mission through which the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to place a spacecraft in the lunar orbit 22 days after the launch.
Nearly a month after that, on September 6 or 7, a landing craft carrying a rover should separate from the orbiter and attempt a controlled descent to land on the surface at the south pole.
ISRO is attempting what is called a "soft landing", a feat achieved only by the former Soviet Union, the United States and China so far.
With India poised to become the world's fifth-largest economy, its space ambitions are also commercial.
"It will foster a new age of discovery, increase our understanding of space, promote more global alliances, stimulate the advancement of technology and grow commercial opportunities in India and inspire future generations," ISRO Chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan said.
Source: Aljazeera
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