India to launch its 2nd lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 on January 3

India will launch its second lunar mission "Chandrayaan-2" on January 3 next year to land on the moon with a lander and rover.

Talking to news persons in Bengaluru, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K. Sivan said that the ISRO is aiming to launch the mission on January 3 next year but the window to land on the lunar surface is open till March 2019. 

The 800-crore rupees lunar mission named "Chandrayaan-2" comes over a decade after India went up to the lunar orbit in November 8, 2008 after "Chandrayaan-1" launch on October



22 onboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket from the spaceport in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The 3,890-kg Chandrayaan-2, which will be launched onboard the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-3, will orbit around the moon and study its lunar conditions to collect data on its topography, mineralogy and exosphere.

This is the first time India will have a rover landing on the moon nearly 50 years after American astronaut Neil Armstrong walked on the eerie lunar surface in 1969.