India’s second mission to the Moon– Chandrayaan-2–was called off due to a “technical snag” in its most powerful rocket a little less than an hour before launch from a spaceport here in the early hours of Monday.
Scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)were assessing the seriousness of the problem with the heavylift rocket GSLVMk-III rocket carrying the satellite that put a halt to the ambitious Rs 976crore lunar mission amid uncertainty over a future launch date.
The ISRO was tightlipped as to what may have caused theglitch that occurred when liquid propellant was being loaded into the rocket’sindigenous cryogenic upper stage engine.
But several space scientists said the space agency must beappreciated for calling off the launch of rather than hurrying into a majordisaster.
Watched by President Ram Nath Kovind, the countdown to thelaunch of Chandrayaan-2 on board Geosynchronous Launch VehicleGSLV-Mk-III, dubbed as ‘Baahubali’, wasscheduled for 2.51 am.
The mission was stopped 56 minutes and 24 seconds beforelift-off at 1.55 am following an announcement from the Mission Control Centre.
Confusion prevailed for several minutes before the ISRO cameout with an official confirmation about the launch being cancelled.
“A technical snag was observed in the launch vehiclesystem at t-minus 56 minutes. As a measure of abundant precaution Chandrayaan 2launch has been called off for today,” ISRO Associate Director (PublicRelations) B R Guruprasad said. He did not specify the nature of the snagA revised launch date will be announced later,he added.