Chandrayaan - 2 launch: Filling of Liquid Hydrogen in progress, tweets ISRO

Giving updates on the launch of Chandrayaan-2, India's indigenous moon mission, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Monday said that filling of Liquid Oxygen in Cryogenic Stage (C25) of GSLVMkIII-M1 is completed and filling of Liquid Hydrogen is in progress.

ISRO's tweet read, "Two hours to go !!! Filling of Liquid Oxygen in Cryogenic Stage (C25) of #GSLVMkIII-M1 completed and Filling of Liquid Hydrogen is in progress."

Shortly after ISRO tweeted a picture of GSLVMkIII-M1 saying, "As our journey begins, do you know what is the distance of Moon from Earth? The average distance is 3, 84, 000 km, Vikram lander will land on Moon on the 48th day of the mission, which begins today."

Chandrayaan-2, is set to launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh at 2.43 pm today. The 20-hour countdown for the launch of India's second lunar exploration mission began on Sunday evening.

ISRO chief K Sivan had said that Chandrayaan-2 will perform 15 crucial manoeuvres in the days to come. Sivan said that all the preparatory works regarding the launch have been completed and technical snags that developed in the first attempt have been rectified.

ISRO had successfully completed the launch rehearsal of the Chandrayaan-2 mission on Saturday. The Chandrayaan-2 was scheduled to be launched on July 15. However, less than an hour before the launch, the mission was aborted after a technical snag was detected.

ISRO Chief said that Chandrayaan-2 will be landing on the moon very slowly. "It will land on the South Pole. There is a lot of scientific testing to be done regarding the mission. Scientists around the world are looking forward to the launch," said Sivan.It will be the first Indian expedition to attempt a soft landing on the lunar surface. This mission will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia, and China to carry out a soft landing on Moon.