ISRO postpones luanch of Chandrayaan-1 mission

Bangalore, Feb 25 (UNI) India's ambitious space mission Chandrayaan-1, which was earlier slated for launch in last week of April, has now been put off to July.

The postponement of the launch of 525-kg lunar orbitar was necessitated due to more work still left in respect of payload integration and there was absolutely no set back with regard to the mission, ISRO sources said today.

ISRO now planned to launch satellite by a PSLV, carrying eleven payloads including six from foreign nations, in the first week of July. The vehicle would take to space six instruments belonging to the US, Britain, Sweden, Bulgaria and Germany, apart from five being built by ISRO.

There was no hardware problem but it is only a caution being taken for a faultless launch, sources said.

The launch was first fixed for April nine.

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