Chandrayaan – 1 likely to be launched on October 22 - ISRO

India’s maiden mission to moon Chandrayaan – 1 is likely to be launched in the early hours of October 22 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, about 100 kms north of Chennai.

“The tentative date for launch is October 22 though the window will be kept open till October 26. Weather permits, we plan to launch the lunar spacecraft around 6.30 am IST on October 22”, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Director S Satish told reporters in Bangalore.

The 1,380-kg spacecraft, built at ISRO’s Satellite Centre in Bangalore, has already been shipped to Sriharikota, where it is in the process of being integrated with the specially designed 320-tonne Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV – C11). The PSLV rocket will carry the spacecraft into the lunar orbit.

The integration is expected to be completed by this weekend. “All the systems and instruments will be checked and tested for operational purposes”, Satish said. “If weather permits, the formal countdown will begin 50 hours before the launch in the early hours of October 20”, he said.

“The spacecraft will orbit around the moon at an altitude of 100 km to map the topography and mineralogical resources of the lunar soil. Chandrayaan – 1 has 11 payloads including five from India and six from US, Europe and Bulgaria”, Satish added. A 30-kg moon impact probe, which also part of the payload, is expected to hit the lunar surface and unfurl the Indian tricolour.

Though the Rs 3.86 billion lunar mission had been cleared by the Federal Government five years ago, the historic launch of Chandrayaan –1 had faced several delays. The launch of Chandrayaan – 1 is being viewed as India’s entry into the big league of space-faring nations.

Ahead of the launch, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair called upon the scientific community to come out with innovative studies by going to Venus, Mars and other planets and their satellites. “This would take human knowledge beyond what has been achieved so far”, he told reporters in Bangalore.

He said ISRO was also planning Chandrayaan – 2, which is awaiting the Government’s nod for a manned space flight in a few months. Similiarly, ISRO is planning even an unmanned mission to Mars in a year’s time, he said.