Chandrayaan-2 to be relaunched on July 22 at 2.43 pm, confirms ISRO

New Delhi, July 18: The much-anticipated launch of Chandrayaan-2, India's second mission to the Moon, was called off due to a technical glitch on July 15, and will be relaunched at 2:43 pm on Monday.

Announcing fresh date, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) tweeted: "Chandrayaan-2 launch, which was called off due to a technical snag on July 15, 2019, is now rescheduled at 2:43 pm IST on Monday, July 22, 2019."

ISRO has successfully rectified the fault and is looking forward to the launch the mission before the end of July, according to reports.

The countdown to the launch of Chandrayaan-2, onboard the GSLV Mk-III rocket, was scheduled for 2.51 am on July 15. It was, however, stopped 56 minutes and 24 seconds before lift-off.

"Launch is called off due to technical snag. It is not possible to make the launch within the (launch) window. (A new) launch schedule will be announced later," an Isro official had said.

The reason for the odd timing of 2.51 am and the date (July 15) was to ensure precision entry into the lunar orbit.

India's space agency had earlier scheduled the launch in the first week of January but shifted it to July 15.

However, it is not the first time, India's first mission to the Moon too had experienced a similar problem shortly before the rocket could blast off.

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.