The Indian interest in exploring earth's nearest celestial body took a formal shape in April 2003 when over 100 planetary and multi-discipline scientists endorsed a moon mission starting with an orbiter. The space powers were not looking at moon at that time - a far cry from the current trend
Chandrayaan 1 was launched in October 2008 even as the foundation for a sequel was conjured up in late 2007.
Here is a quick glimpse of the chequered story of Chandrayaan-2, out to make history by soft-landing on the southern lunar surface.
November 2007: ISRO & Russian space agency Roscosmos sign up for a joint landing mission to moon. ISRO to provide the orbiter and rover; Roscosmos to provide the lander.
September 2008: The then Manmohan Singh government approves Chandrayaan-2
2009: spacecraft design is ready and reviewed by the two sides
2013-16 Project set back after another Russian joint mission Phobos Grunt fails; Russia backs out as a few elements of this mission were common to Chandrayaan-2 also
2015 India decides to go it alone; with issues of GSLV MkII launcher yet to be ironed out, mission is expected in 2016 but gets delayed.
March 2018: the new date for launch of Chandrayaan-2
June 2018: after the fourth technical review of the project ISRO decides to reconfigure the lander and the landing sequence; changes the vehicle to GSLV MkIII;
February 2019: launch gets delayed by 5 months as the lander's legs get damaged during trials
July 15, 2019: Launch stopped just an hour before take-off due to a technical problem in the launcher
July 22, 2019: Chandrayaan-2 is launched from Sriharikota
August 20, 2019 : Spacecraft arrives near moon after 30 days in earth orbit and a week's journey from earth
September 7, 2019: The mission is poised for soft-landing on moon around 1.50 a.m.
