Chandrayaan-2

India’s lunar probes Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2. Chandrayaan-1 was launched from Sriharikota Island, India, on October 22, 2008, by a PSLV-C11 launch vehicle. It had a mass at liftoff of 1,380 kg (3,042 pounds), including a 55-kg (121-pound) payload that contained 11 scientific instruments from India and several other countries. The…

Chandrayaan-2 launched on July 22, 2019, from Sriharikota on a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III. The spacecraft consisted of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover. The orbiter circles the Moon in a polar orbit at a height of 100 km (62 miles) and…

India’s next lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 (launched in 2019), carried a lander and rover that crashed during landing and were destroyed. However, Chandrayaan-3 (launched in 2023) became the first spacecraft to land in the Moon’s south polar region. Chang’e 5 (launched in 2020) returned about 1.7 kg (3.7 pounds) of…

(Chandrayaan-1, 2008; Chandrayaan-2, 2019; Chandrayaan-3, 2023) as well as the Mars Orbiter Mission (2013), India’s first mission to Mars. On January 16, 2025, ISRO successfully completed the SpaDeX mission, marking India’s first demonstration of space docking. This achievement makes India the fourth country after the United States,…