‘Chandrayaan-2’: Mission called off, but it’s ‘normal’

Ahead of India’s second Lunar mission, ISRO delivered a piece of bad news in the early hours of Monday.  “A technical snag was observed in launch vehicle system at 1 hour before the launch. As a measure of abundant precaution, #Chandrayaan2 launch has been called off for today. Revised launch date will be announced later,” the organization announced, leaving many surprised but not shocked.  After all, the mission has been aborted quite a few times since 2018.  It missed the deadline of mid-February early this year.  

By the time the mission was aborted, the filling of liquid hydrogen in the cryogenic stage of the GSLV-Mk-III was completed.  

“It’s normal. If there are anomalies, you just can’t send it off. Mission cost is over Rs.100 Cr. It may be a simple thing or complex thing, they will analyze it,” G Balachandran, former Director, IDSA, said.  

ISRO will now assess the problem.  Later on, they will empty the fuel loaded in the rocket, which will then be taken back for further investigation.  “This process will take 10 days,” ISRO says.