India will make a second attempt Monday to send a landmark spacecraft to the Moon after an apparent fuel leak forced last week's launch to be aborted. Former NASA scientist Kumar Krishen said India's space agency should be praised for taking on ambitious projects like Chandrayaan-2. Chandrayaan-2, and India's space programme as a whole, are a source of national pride in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has outlined an ambitious plan to launch a crewed space mission by 2022, and India hopes to seek out commercial satellite and orbiting deals. The new mission comes almost 11 years after the launch of India's first lunar mission -- Chandrayaan-1 -- which orbited the Moon and searched for water.

Source: Mint July 21, 2019 12:11 UTC