Chinese landed on moon's far side, we will aim for lunar south pole: ISRO chief

ISRO chief K Sivan on Friday briefed media about the upcoming missions and projects of the year. He shared that the national space research body is soon to come out with a television channel. 

"Our PM said we should call it innovation TV," Sivan said. 

The ISRO chief reacted to the Chinese rover's landing on the far side of the moon claiming that the Indian mission will aim to land on the south pole of the moon. 

"We are going to land on the south pole of the moon, unlike the Chinese who landed on the dark side," he stated. 

Giving details about various ISRO missions planned this year, Sivan noted that Chandrayaan-2 launch window is set between March 25 and April 30.

"ISRO will launch 32 planned missions this year. 14 launch vehicles and 18 satellites including Chandrayaan 2 mission. 1st student satellite to be launched and will be called Kalam 1," Sivan told media. 

"We have developed an incubation centre at Tripura and four more will be created at Trichy, Nagpur, Rourkela and Indore," he said. 

Sivan further noted that Gaganyaan will be the top focus of the year. ISRO has planned a manned mission wherein a humanoid will be sent for the Gaganyaan space project, he added. 

Sivan added that first flight will take off in July this year with a payload up to 500 kilograms. Besides this satellite, GSAT-6A will be launched from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. 

Sivan also noted that ISRO wants the private sector to step in. To begin with, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will be taken to the private sector. 

The design for the crew module and crew service module for Gaganyaan - India's first manned space mission set to launch in 2022 - is nearing finalisation, he said.