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India's 2nd moon mission launched successfully

Sriharikota: Aiming to take a billion dreams to the moon, India Monday successfully launched its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 onboard its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 from the spaceport here to explore the unchartered south pole of the celestial body by landing a rover.

The geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle lifted-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here into cloudy skies at 2.43 pm and successfully placed the 3,850-kg Chandrayaan-2 into the earth orbit about 16 minutes later.

The mission's success brought in huge relief for ISRO scientists after the July 15 launch was called off just about an hour

left following a technical glitch in the rocket.

The Rs 978 crore mission, that will mark a giant leap in India's space research and make it only the fourth country to

have landed a rover on Moon, was rescheduled to Monday after scientists corrected the technical glitch in the three-stage rocket.

In a textbook launch, the towering GSLV-MkIII-M1 lifted off majestically from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, over 100 km from Chennai, as the Indian Space Research Organisation scientists broke into jubilation.

Scientists led by ISRO chief K Sivan watched the launch sequence in rapt attention and broke into applause after every key stage of the rocket's flight which progressed precisely as programmed.

A visibly relieved Sivan, who announced the success of the mission, said: "it is the beginning of a historical journey of India towards the moon."

"We bounced back in flying colours after the earlier technical snag," he said about the glitch that made the space agency reschedule the Chandrayaan-2 launch from July 15 to Monday.

There will be 15 "very crucial manoeuvres" in the next one and half months before the satellite is brought around the moon, he said in his post-launch address from the mission control centre.

"After that, the D-Day will come and on that day we are going to experience 15 minutes of terror, to ensure the landing is safely near the South Pole," he added.

After taking remedial action based on an analysis carried out by a team set up to look into the snag, the space agency announced the rescheduled lift-off four days ago, indicating the confidence of the scientists which stood vindicated with the successful launch.

Chandrayaan-2 comes 11 years after ISRO's successful first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 which scripted history by making more than 3,400 orbits around the Moon and was operational for 312 days till August 29, 2009.

The 43.43m tall three-stage rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 dubbed as 'Baahubali' for its ability to carry heavy payloads, successfully placed the Chandrayaan-2 in the Earth orbit, ISRO said.

Chandrayaan-2, a three-component spacecraft comprising an orbiter, lander and a rover, will undergo 15 crucial manoeuvres before landing on the Moon, expected by the first week of September.

The launch of Chandrayaan-2 illustrates the prowess of Indian scientists and the determination of 130 crore countrymen to scale new frontiers of science, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.

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