Chandrayaan-2: ISRO unveils first picture of spacecraft for second moon mission

New Delhi, June 12: The Indian Space Research Organisation on Wednesday unveiled pictures of Chandrayaan 2 from its testing facility in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

The much awaited space mission Chandrayaan-2, is scheduled to launch between July 9 and July 16 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. It is likely to take 35 to 45 days to reach the moon after the launch.

The 3,800-kg spacecraft includes an orbiter which will circle the moon at 100 km; Vikram, which is a five-legged lander, that is designed to descend on the moon; and a robotic rover, Pragyan, that will explore the lunar terrain around it.

This is the second time in 10 years that India is planning to send a lunar mission into space.

Chandrayaan-2 comes 10 years after ISRO launched Chandrayaan-1 in 2009.

Although, unlike Chandrayan-2, the first mission didn't include a rover.

Chandrayaan-2 mission, is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission about 10 years ago.

Chandrayaan-1 had 11 payloads- five from India, three from Europe, 2 from USA and 1 from Bulgaria, and the mission had the credit for discovery of water on the lunar surface.

The 1.4 tonne spacecraft was launched using PSLV and the orbiter had orbited 100 km from the lunar surface.