India’s moon mission, destined for the uncharted south pole, has been put on hold less than an hour before take off, following a technical glitch.
The mission, which was scheduled to launch at 02:51 local time from Sriharikota space centre, north of Chennai, is India’s most ambitious to date.
At 56.24 minutes from launch, the countdown stop was frozen and a media feed from the control room was cut off. Shortly afterwards, the Indian Space Research Organisation confirmed that the launch had been abandoned for the day.
“A technical snag was observed in launch vehicle system at T-56 minute. As a measure of abundant precaution, #Chandrayaan2 launch has been called off for today,” the agency tweeted.
A revised launch date will be announced later, it added.
The mission has another 10-minute back up window in which it could launch on Tuesday.
Chandrayaan-2 is India’s first attempt at a surface landing on the moon - a feat achieved by only Russia, the US and China. If successful, it would also be the first mission to conduct a surface landing on the little-explored lunar south pole region, where scientists hope to collect information about the moon’s mineral and chemical composition, and search for water.
The four-tonne spacecraft is equipped with a lunar orbiter, a lander and a rover that is designed to spend two weeks analysing the moon’s surface.
The mission comes amid a renewed global interest in moon exploration. In January, a Chinese spacecraft became the first to land on the far side of the moon, while in April, the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet, the first privately funded mission to the moon, crashed after an apparent engine failure.
India’s space programmes have been hailed by nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi as a marker of the country’s rising status as a global power. In March, Modi announced the successful test of the country’s first space weapon, an anti-satellite missile. The missile test was criticised by Nasa, who warned it had created dangerous orbital debris.
Monday’s attempted launch follows Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar mission in 2008, which helped confirm the presence of water on the moon, but did not land on the lunar surface.
As well as Chandrayaan-2, India is developing a plan to launch a manned space mission by 2022.
