Chandrayaan-2 launch postponed to October: ISRO chief

The experts had met recently and suggested the tests, following which the mission will now be launched in October, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K Sivan said.

Chennai: The launch of Indias second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2, slated for next

 month, has been postponed to October as the experts have suggested some

 tests, the ISRO said today.

The experts had met recently and suggested the tests, following which the mission 

will now be launched in October, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

 chairman K Sivan said.

"Chandrayaan 2 will not be in April, it has been changed to October," he told

 reporters at the airport here.

Union Minister of State in the Prime Ministers Office, in-charge of the Department of

 Space, Jitendra Singh had on February 16 last said the lunar mission under which

 the ISRO will for the first time attempt to land a rover on the moons south pole, 

will be launched in April.

Sivan had earlier said the window to launch the Rs 800 crore mission wasbetween

 April and November 2018.

While the "targeted date" was April, ISRO would launch the mission in Octoberor , he had said.

According to ISRO, Chandrayaan-2 is a "totally indigenous mission comprising an

 orbiter, lander and rover".

The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft weighing around 3,290 kg would orbit around the moon

 and perform the objectives of remote sensing the moon.

"The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, 

elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice,

" ISRO said on its website about the lunar mission.

ISRO had launched its maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 in 2008.