Chandrayaan-2 launch: ISRO's moon mission lifts off from Sriharikota

The 20-hour countdown for the launch of India's Rs 1,000-crore moon mission Chandrayaan-2 began Sunday evening at 6.43 pm. Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) ambitious lunar mission was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota on Monday, July 22, at 2.43 pm.

The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV-Mk III) rocket with Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was initially scheduled for flight at 2.51 am on July 15. However, the flight was postponed after a technical glitch was detected an hour prior to the rocket lift-off.

Taking to Twitter, ISRO said it had completed the filling of UH25 fuel in the liquid core stage of the GSLV-Mk III rocket, nicknamed 'Baahubali'.

Chandrayaan-2 mission will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia, and China to carry out a soft landing on the Moon.

Beginning from celebrities to politicians, everybody hailed ISRO's successful launch of the Chandrayaan 2 mission.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated ISRO after the space station successfully launched the Chandrayaan-2. PM Modi also said that every Indian will be proud today.

Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, "Special moments that will be etched in the annals of our glorious history! The launch of #Chandrayaan2 illustrates the prowess of our scientists and the determination of 130 crore Indians to scale new frontiers of science. Every Indian is immensely proud today!"

"Indian at heart, Indian in spirit! What would make every Indian overjoyed is the fact that #Chandrayaan2 is a fully indigenous mission. It will have an Orbiter for remote sensing the Moon and also a Lander-Rover module for analysis of lunar surface," tweeted PM Modi.

India's second lunar mission Chandrayaan 2 comes 11 years after ISRO's successful first Moon mission Chandrayaan 1 that made history by making more than 3,400 orbits around the moon and was operational for 312 days till August 29, 2009.

GSLVMkIII-M1 successfully injected Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into the Earth's Orbit. Here's the view:

The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV-Mk III) rocket that lifted off the Chandrayaan 2 mission from the Sriharikota space station has separated itself from the orbiter and other components.

The Indian space agency launched the ambitious moon mission Chandrayaan-2 a week after it was aborted just before lift-off. Chandrayaan-2 was launched from Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.

The much-anticipated moon mission the Chandrayaan 2 launch is being watched by a billion population across the country and hundreds at the Sriharikota station's viewing gallery.

It is now only less than five minutes left for Isro to lift off Chandrayaan 2. The Chandrayaan 2 launch is being watched by a billion population across the country and hundreds at the Sriharikota station's viewing gallery.

Chairman K Sivan of ISRO said that they were "doubly confident" about Chandrayaan 2 launch this time. The much-anticipated moon mission was earlier aborted on July 15 due to some technical glitch.

The average distance is 3,84,000 km. Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander will land on Moon on the 48th day of the mission, which begins today.

Filling of Liquid Hydrogen in Cryogenic Stage(C25) of GSLVMkIII-M1 completed.

The 3.8-tonne Chandrayaan-2 is safely locked away inside the nose cone of the launcher and is called composite as it includes the lander Vikram (in memory or Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian space programme) and rover Pragyaan (Sanskrit for wisdom). The lander Vikram has been built by the Russian Federal Space Agency and Pragyaan has been developed by ISRO.

Ahead of the much-anticipated launch of the Chandrayaan-2, people who have gathered at the Sriharikota space station to witness the historic launch of India's second moon mission chant Bharat Mata ki Jai.

People gather to witness the launch of Chandrayaan-2 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, which is scheduled at 2.43 pm.

Doordarshan will also be broadcasting the Livestream of the Chandrayaan-2 live on its TV channel. Viewers can also watch the Livestream of the Chandrayaan-2 launch at the YouTube channel of Doordarshan. Here's the link:

The official Twitter account of ISRO (twitter.com/isro) or the official ISRO Facebook account (facebook.com/isro) will also Livestream the Chandrayaan-2 launch and viewers can watch the event live on their smartphone or laptop.

To witness the launch of India's heavy-lift rocket GSLV-Mk III carrying Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, at least 7,500 people have registered online with the ISRO. The rocket will be launched today afternoon at 2:43 pm. "A total of 7,500 people have registered online to witness the rocket's launch," an ISRO official stated.

ISRO chairman K Sivan has called Chandrayaan-2 the "most complex mission ever undertaken by ISRO". The success of India's ambitious moon mission, whose budget is less than Hollywood blockbuster 'Avengers: Endgame', will be a giant boost for India's space plans.

ISRO has done some hard work on the ground so that its moon lander -- Vikram -- can soft-land safely and rover -- Pragyaan -- can move around. Speaking to news agency IANS, M Annadurai, who retired as Director, U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), formerly ISRO Satellite Centre said, "The surface of the earth and that of the moon are entirely different. So we had to create an artificial moon surface and test our rover and lander."

The Indian space agency has nicknamed the GSLV-Mk III rocket as 'Bahubali'. Weighing about 640-tonne, the rocket will carry the 3.8-tonne Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft. The lift-off of the three-component spacecraft weighed 3,850 kg and comprised an orbiter, the lander and the rover.