The launch of Chandrayaan 2, India's second mission to the Moon was called off due to a technical snag on 15 July 2019 and has been rescheduled to Monday, 22 July 2019 at 2.43 pm IST, ISRO announced in a tweet today.
Chandrayaan 2 is ready to take a billion dreams to the Moon — now stronger than ever before! Join us for the launch on Monday — 22 July, 2019 — at 2:43 PM IST.
— ISRO (@isro) July 18, 2019
#Chandrayaan2 #GSLVMkIII #ISRO pic.twitter.com/4ybFcHNkq6
In a dramatic and anti-climactic turn of events, the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) called off the highly-anticipated Chandrayaan 2 launch 56 minutes before its scheduled liftoff at 2.51 am on 15 July. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk-III), ISRO's heaviest and most capable launch vehicle, will launch the Chandrayaan 2 mission.
The mission, which can make India the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to successfully pull off a soft-landing on the moon, was stopped 56 minutes and 24 seconds before its launch this Monday after a technical snag was discovered in the unmanned the launch vehicle system. In its announcement of the mission being aborted, the space agency said that the step to delay the launch was taken "as a measure of abundant precaution".