Isro likely to launch Chandrayaan-2 on January 3

​Sriharikota: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman K Sivan has said India's second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 is likely to be launched on January 3, 2019. Chandrayaan-2 will be the first mission in the world going near the South Pole.

After the successful launch of PSLV C-42 into orbit, Sivan talked about the upcoming launches scheduled over the next few months. He said, "Chandrayaan-2 is planned for a window from January 3 to February 16, 2019, that we are targeting. It can happen anytime during that window. But we are aiming for the beginning of the window, January 3."

Talking about the successful launch of the NovaSAR and S1-4 earth observation satellites of UK, Sivan said, "I am extremely happy to announce that PSLV-C42 carrying two customer satellites NovaSAR and S1-4 placed them precisely in orbit. Within the next six months, 10 satellite missions and eight launch vehicle missions would be launched - one every two weeks."

On Sunday evening, Isro successfully launched PSLV C-42 into orbit carrying two international satellites -- Nova SAR and S1-4 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

Reacting on Isro scientist Nambi Narayanan who was granted compensation by the Supreme Court after being arrested in an alleged spying case, Sivan said, "Isro isn't in the picture. The case is only against Kerala government. When it was decided that he (Nambi Narayan) is wrongly arrested, he returned to Isro."

The Supreme Court on September 14 granted compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Narayanan, who was arrested in an alleged spy scandal in 1994. The apex court had observed that the arrest of Narayanan was "needless" and "unnecessary".