India aborts moon launch in last hour
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, 14-story rocket launcher, Indian Space Research Organization spokesman B.R. Guruprasad said.
The countdown abruptly stopped at T-56 minutes, 24 seconds, and 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 in security and technology. If India does eventually manage the soft landing on the moon, it would be only the fourth to do so after the U.S., Russia and China.
Dr. K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, said last week that the around $140 million Chandrayaan-2 mission was the nation’s “most prestigious” to date, in part because of the technical complexities of making a soft landing on the lunar surface — an event he described as “15 terrifying minutes.”
After countdown commenced Sunday, Sivan visited two Hindu shrines to pray for the mission’s success.
Because of repeated delays, India missed the chance to achieve the first soft landing near the lunar south pole. China’s Chang’e 4 mission landed a lander and rover there last January.
The U.S. is working to send a manned spacecraft to the moon’s south pole by 2024.
India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission orbited the moon in 2008 and helped confirm the presence of water. Modi has set a deadline of 2022 for India’s first manned spaceflight.
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.