---
title: "India Is Launching a Moon Mission This Weekend"
description: "India is getting ready to launch its first-ever lunar lander mission called Chandrayaan 2 on Sunday, including an orbiter, lander, and rover."
date: "2019-07-10"
modified: "2019-07-10"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/india-launching-moon-mission-sunday"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Moon"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "far side"
  - "india"
  - "lunar lander"
  - "moon"
  - "the digest"
---

# India Is Launching a Moon Mission This Weekend

![India is getting ready to launch its first-ever lunar lander mission called Chandrayaan 2 on Sunday, including an orbiter, lander, and rover.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/india-launching-moon-mission-sunday.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: ISRA\</em\>*

## Chandrayaan-2

India is getting ready to launch its first-ever lunar lander on Sunday. As part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, the lander will be riding on top of the country's most powerful rocket, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III.

The plan is to both launch an orbiter module and a 56-pound mobile rover from a 1.4 ton landing craft called Vikram.

India successfully completed its first lunar probe mission, Chandrayaan-1, in October 2008. The probe made a controlled impact near the south pole, ejecting subsurface soil to be analyzed later for traces of water.

## Destination Basin

The planned landing site for Chandryaan 2 is just 220 miles from the rim of the South-Pole Aitken basin — the same massive crater on the far side of the Moon under which scientists recently discovered evidence of a [“large excess of mass.”](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/deep-structure-mass-moon-crater>)

The rover is carrying an X-ray spectrometer that could analyze the composition of the Aitken basin crust to find clues about its origin story.

The planned mission is kicking off seven months after China [sent its Chang'e-4 lunar lander](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-launches-first-lander-far-side-of-moon>) to the far side of the Moon — the first time a man-made object landed on the far less studied side that remains facing away from Earth.

**READ MORE:** [India’s first moon lander stacked for launch](<https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/07/09/indias-first-moon-lander-stacked-for-launch/>) \[*Spaceflight Now*\]

**More on Chandrayaan:** *[India’s Chandrayaan-2 Has More Power Than NASA’s Apollo Missions, But Cheaper](<https://futurism.com/indias-chandrayaan-2-apollo-missions-cheaper>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)