Isro, the country’s space agency, on Monday afternoon said it had launched a spacecraft to the far side of the moon days after it had to abort the mission due to a glitch.
At the mission control centre, scientists reacted in glee and applauded as the rocket carrying the unmanned spacecraft lifted off as per the schedule at 2.43pm from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Monday.
Isro celebrated the launch on Twitter:
Chandrayaan 2 will land on the moon’s south pole in September and send a rover to explore water deposits on the lunar surface that was confirmed by an earlier mission, Chandrayaan 1, which orbited the moon.
Minutes later, the “Baahubali” rocket put Chandrayaan 2 into the Earth’s orbit.
Isro chairman said this was the most complex mission ever handled by the organisation. 'I am extremely happy to announce that GSLV Mark 3 successfully injected the Chandrayaan 2 into orbit... It is the beginning of a historical journey for India... We fixed a serious technical snag and ISRO bounced back with flying colours,” he was quoted by NDTV as saying.