A week after an abrupt abort to mission, India’s space agency has launched an unmanned spacecraft to the far side of the Moon. Chandrayaan, the Sanskrit word for “moon craft”, is designed to land on the lunar south pole in September and send a rover to explore water deposits that were confirmed by a previous mission that orbited the Moon.
A technical snag, less than an hour before blast off shattered India’s dreams to become the fourth nation to land a spacecraft on the Moon. The launch system of the Chandrayaan-2 — or Moon Chariot 2, experienced some technical problem and a revised date for the launch will now be announced by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).