Chandavan2 mised thisrendexvous with the moon, but the net date is not too far
india's second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, was
pulled back from launch just 56 minutes before its Ischeduled liftoff on July 15. This was owing to a tech nical glitch in the GSLV Mark-II rocket launcher. No res cheduled date has been announced for launch. This hasi no doubt served as a damper on those who eagerly looked forward to India being only the fourth country to launch a mission that would land on the moon, and the very first to land on and explore its south pole region. Yet, it was best that the glitch was discovered before the launch. Rocket launches always have a nail-biting finish. Even the GSLV-D1, the slighter predecessor to the GSLV Mark-Ill, suffered such a setback when it was about to be launched for its first developmental test flight in 2001. It was called off exactly one second be-i fore launch, as it was discovered that one of the four liquid propellant strap-on stages had not developed thei required thrust. This test flight was conducted just 21 days later, paving the way for several successful launch es of the GSLV rocket subsequently.
