Chandrayaan 2 mission: India may launch its second mission to Moon in first quarter of 2018, says ISRO chief

New Delhi: Chandrayaan 2, India's second mission to the Moon, is on course and is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2018, according to ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar.

The ISRO chief while delivering a speech at the seventh annual convocation of Vels University on Wednesday said that tests were underway for a controlled landing of the spacecraft on the surface of the moon.

"ISRO will develop an engine that will help in the controlled landing on the moon. The mission is currently planned for the first quarter of 2018," he said, adding that scientists had developed an artificial crater to simulate the surface of lunar conditions for the landing experiments.

He further revealed that a series of ground tests is also in progress at the ISRO facility in Mahendragiri, Tirunelveli district, and in Challakere, in Chitradurga district near Bengaluru. "The satellite is also getting ready," he added.

When asked about the Venus mission, Kumar said the project had not been finalised yet, but talks were on.

Chandrayaan 2, which consists of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover configuration, is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission.

It is planned to be launched as a composite stack into the Earth Parking Orbit (EPO) of 170 X 18,500 km by GSLV-Mk II, as per the Indian Space Research Organisation.

While the Orbiter with scientific payloads will orbit around the moon, the Lander will soft land on the Moon at a specified site and deploy the Rover.

On February 15, 2017, the Indian space agency scripted history by launching a record set of 104 satellites, including the country's earth observation satellite Cartosat-2 series, on a single rocket.