Chandrayaan-2

Mission Profile

Chandrayaan-2 is India's second lunar exploration mission, launched on 22 July 2019 aboard an LVM3 rocket and consisting of an orbiter, the Vikram lander, and the Pragyan rover. The orbiter successfully entered lunar orbit and continues to operate, mapping the Moon with unprecedented resolution and discovering water ice at the lunar poles using its miniature synthetic aperture radar. The Vikram lander, however, suffered a software-controlled braking failure during its final descent and crashed near the lunar south pole on 7 September 2019. Despite the lander loss, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter carries eight scientific instruments and has returned a wealth of science data, directly informing the design of the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission in 2023.