Chandrayaan-1 too faced glitch before launch: former ISRO chief

Hours after Chandrayaan-2 launch was called off because of a technical glitch, former ISRO chief K Madhavan Nair recalled Monday that India's first mission to the Moon too had experienced a similar problem shortly before the rocket could blast off.

But Indian Space Research Organisation scientists found and rectified the error and the mission took off as planned, said Nair, the chairman of the space agency during Chandrayaan-1 launch in 2008.

Chandrayaan-1 made more than 3,400 orbits around the Moon during its operational life of 312 days and detected water in vapour form on the lunar surface.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission was aborted 56 minutes and 24 seconds before the lift-off early Monday. ISRO said a "technical snag" was observed in the launch vehicle system and mission was called off for now.

It did not specify the nature of the problem.

Recalling the 2008 incident, Nair told PTI, "There was a leakage in propellent that was detected two hours before the launch of Chandrayaan-1. It was corrected and the mission was launched on the same day."