ISRO: Chandrayaan-2 mission is planned for middle of April this year

Bengaluru, Jan 11 The launch of India's second Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, is gotten ready for the middle of April this year, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chairman K Sivan announced Friday.

ISRO had earlier said Chandrayaan-2 will be launched in a window between January-February 16 this year.

The mission, costing almost Rs 800 crore, is an advanced version of the previous
Chandrayaan-1 mission around 10 years ago.

"Regarding Chandrayaan-2 schedule, at the present time Chandrayaan is scheduled from March 25 to April end. Most likely, the normal targeted date is April middle," Sivan told reporters here.

He said the space agency had earlier planned to launch the spacecraft at some point between January and February but it couldn't appear on the grounds that specific tests couldn't be conducted.

"Once we missed the February target, next available target is April. At the present time it is planned for April," the ISRO chief included.