Chandrayaan-2 to be now launched on July 22, says ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has rescheduled the launch of its lunar probe, the Chandrayaan-2. The probe will now be launched on July 22.

"Chandrayaan-2 launch, which was called off due to a technical snag on July 15, 2019, is now rescheduled at 2:43 pm IST on Monday, July 22, 2019," ISRO said in a tweet on Thursday morning.

Chandrayaan-2 was scheduled to launch early on Monday (July 15), but the lift-off was cancelled almost an hour before the scheduled launch at 2:51am due to a technical snag.

"A technical snag was observed in launch vehicle system at T-56 minute. As a measure of abundant precaution, #Chandrayaan2 launch has been called off for today. Revised launch date will be announced later," ISRO said on Twitter after the launch as called off.

Watch: Brief history of every moon mission in the history of space exploration

The fault in the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III rocket, which was supposed to take the lunar probe in space, has been rectified, the space agency said on Wednesday.

India successfully carried out its first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, nearly 11 years ago.

The US $146 million mission, if successful, would boost India's aspirations to catch up with global space leaders United States and China and put it in a better position to compete in the commercial space market.

A success would make India only the fourth country behind the United States, Russia and China to perform a "soft", or controlled, landing on the moon and put a rover on it.

This would be the third attempted moon landing this year after China's successful Chang'e-4 lunar probe and Israeli spacecraft Beresheet, which failed and crashed on to the moon in April.