Chandrayaan-2 was not a failure: Minister

NEW DELHI: It is unfair to describe the “Chandrayaan Mission” as a failure as technologically the launch was successful, Union Minister of State for Department of Space Jitendra Singh said in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

The setback in the landing, he said, has only made India’s resolve stronger and costs will also be cut in future missions.

Replying to a supplementary in the Upper House during Question Hour, Singh said even advanced nations like the US, which started their space mission much earlier, could gain success in soft landing only in the eighth attempt.

“Chandrayaan was a mission watched keenly by all Indians. There was some disappointment but it would be unfair to describe it as a failure...Technologically the launch was successful. Entry into the earth’s orbit was successful. Then entry into the lunar orbit was successful. Orbiter is very much there...In the subsequent attempt this will cut down on the cost as well because the lander is also there,” he said. He said the Orbiter has functioned normally and only in the last about 30 kms “this incident took place, which I would not describe as a failure. This has made us wiser. The setback to the landing has only made India’s resolve stronger.” Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, “Despite setbacks in landing we must remember that Chandrayaan had quite a successful journey until now.”

Scientific objectives were accomplished including moon surface mapping, topographical studies, radar based studies etc, he said. In response to a query whether the launch was made to correlate with 100 days of Modi 2, Singh said the chronology and events of launch are designed through astronomical ways.

ISRO reschedule Cartosat-3 launch to Nov 27

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday said the launch of its earth imaging and mapping satellite Cartosat-3 along with 13 commercial nano satellites from the US, has been rescheduled to November 27.

The space agency had earlier announced that the launch is tentatively scheduled at 09:28 hrs IST on November 25, subject to weather conditions.

The satellites would be launched by India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C47 into Sun Synchronous Orbit from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The Cartosat-3 is a “third generation agile advanced satellite” having high resolution imaging capability, ISRO said.