India aborts moon mission launch, citing technical problem
SRIHARIKOTA, India — India aborted the launch Monday of a spacecraft intended to land on the far side of the moon less than an hour before liftoff.
The Chandrayaan- 2 mission was called off when a “technical snag” was observed in the 640- ton, 14story rocket launcher, Indian Space Research Organization spokesman B. R. Guruprasad said.
The countdown abruptly stopped at T minus 56 minutes, 24 seconds, and Mr. Guruprasad said the agency would announce a revised launch date soon.
Chandrayaan, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, is designed for a soft landing on the lunar south pole and to send a rover to explore water deposits confirmed by a previous Indian space mission.
With nuclear- armed India poised to become the world’s fifth- largest economy, the ardently nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is eager to show off the country’s prowess. If India did manage the soft landing, it would be only the fourth to do so after the U. S., Russia and China.
K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, said at a news conference last week that the about $ 140- million Chandrayaan2 mission was the nation’s most prestigious to date, in part because of the technical complexities of soft landing on the lunar surface — an event he described as “15 terrifying minutes.”
After countdown began Sunday, Mr. Sivan visited two Hindu shrines to pray for the mission’s success.
Practically since its inception in 1962, India’s space program has been criticized as inappropriate for an overpopulated, developing nation.
But decades of space research have allowed India to develop satellite, communications and remote sensing technologies that are helping solve everyday problems at home, from forecasting fish migration to predicting storms and floods.
India’s Chandrayaan- 1 mission orbited the moon in 2008 and helped confirm the presence of water. The Indian Space Research Organization wants its new mission’s rover to further probe the far side of the moon, where scientists believe a basin contains water- ice that could help humans do more than plant flags on future manned missions.
Mr. Modi has set a deadline of 2022 for India’s first manned spaceflight.