Recently, more and more global aerospace agencies have begun planning missions to explore the moon. And many will take place, not that soon. But recently the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced that it plans to launch the Chandrayan-2 spacecraft to an Earth satellite as early as 2018.
As part of their space program, Indian researchers plan to use the GSLV Mk-II launch vehicle. The Chandrayan-2 project is a logical continuation of the Indian lunar program launched by the Chandrayan-1 spacecraft in 2008. Then the spacecraft spent 312 days in lunar orbit and sent a probe to its surface. Within the framework of the Chandrayan-2 mission, it is planned to continue studying the composition of the lunar surface. Representatives of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, which will direct the flight, said in an interview with Times Of India.
“India has not carried out any launches since August 31, when ISRO failed to launch the IRNSS-1H satellite, which was supposed to replace the IRNSS-1A satellite for the operation of the Indian navigation system NAVIC. Now in the second half of December, India plans to launch the navigation satellite Cartosat-2 and simultaneously 30 nanosatellites, and soon after that we will carry out a second attempt to replace IRNSS-1A. Both of these launches will be carried out from the first site of the Sriharikote cosmodrome, as the second will be busy for the launches of three GSLV rockets, including the Chandrayan-2 mission, which will take place in March 2018”.
Vladimir Kuznetsov