GSLVMKIII successfully injects Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft into Earth's orbit

Within minutes of the launch of India's indigenous moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Monday afternoon, the GSLVMkIII-M1 injected the probe mission spacecraft into the Earth's orbit.

Monitoring every second of the moon mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation Chief K Sivan and other scientists celebrated after achieving the feat.

Expressing his delight over the successful launch, ISRO Chief K Sivan said, "I am extremely happy to announce that the GSLVMkIII-M1 successfully injected Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft into Earth Orbit. It is the beginning of a historic journey of India towards moon and to land at a place near the South Pole to carry out scientific experiments."

Sivan also acknowledged the postponement on previous launch date and said, "After that technical snag we had, we fixed it & now ISRO has bounced back with flying colours. "

Earlier, the spacecraft took off at 2.43 pm, exactly a week after the mission was aborted after a technical snag was detected less than an hour before the launch.

In the run-up to the launch, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), on its Twitter, gave regular updates about preparations.

ISRO chief K Sivan on Sunday said that the Chandrayaan-2 will perform 15 crucial manoeuvres in the days to come. He added that all the preparatory work regarding the launch has been completed, and technical glitches that developed in the first attempt have been rectified.

Today, people in Kanpur city offered prayers at a temple for the mission's success.

ISRO had successfully completed the launch rehearsal of the Chandrayaan-2 mission on Saturday.

Chandrayaan-2 will explore a region of Moon where no mission has ever set foot. The spacecraft consists of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover together referred to as "composite body". The probe's total mass is 3.8 ton and is expected to land on the Moon's south polar region on September 6 or 7 this year.

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.