INDIA yesterday successfully launched its Moon Mission-2, or Chandrayaan-2, which was aborted July 15 due to a technical snag.

“GSLV MkIII-M1 lifts-off from Sriharikota carrying Chandrayaan-2,” tweeted the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

The satellite successfully ejected from the launch vehicle and entered the Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), or the earth orbit, confirmed the ISRO.

The rocket “GSLV-Mk-III” carrying the orbiter, lander Vikram and rover Pragyaan took off at 2:43 p.m. (Indian Standard Time) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, off the Bay of Bengal coast located in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

The Lander and the Rover are expected to touch down near the Lunar South Pole in early September, becoming the first ever spacecraft to land in that region. The Lunar South Pole remains unexplored till date.

If successfully carried out, India would become the fourth country, following the U.S., Russia and China, to make a soft landing on the moon surface.

The nearly US$150 million worth of Moon Mission aims at gathering data on water, minerals and rock formations on the lunar surface.

(Xinhua)