The weather in Sriharikota will hold the key for Wednesday’s proposed launch of Chandrayaan-1, India’s spacecraft mission to moon.
The spaceport has reported lightning activity and inclement weather, and any further lightning on Tuesday night may lead to a postponement of the launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
A confident S Satish, director, Publications and Press Relations of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), said: “Eighteen minutes into the flight the rocket will sling the spacecraft into the 255-km perigee (nearest point to earth) and 23,000 km apogee (farthest point from earth) path to script a new history in the annals of India’s space odyssey.”
Updates: Launch Successful
As India’s first lunar mission settled into its chosen orbit successfully, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair described the launch as “perfect” which was achieved after “fighting against all odds”.
“It is a historic moment as far as India is concerned. We have started our journey for the moon and the first leg of the journey has gone perfectly well,” Nair said seconds after the successful completion of the launch on Wednesday morning.
“It is a remarkable performance by the launch vehicle,” he said.
Congratulations ISRO Team India!!!
This video shows the preparation and events before the launch.
The video below shows the actual launch and trajectory map.
