Chandrayaan-2 to cost Rs 426 crore

Chandrayaan-2,which is expected to be launched in September 2013,is a lunar landing mission.

ISRO will spend Rs 426 crore for the country’s second unmanned moon mission — Chandrayaan-2,a senior scientist of the space agency said here on Saturday.

This is an additional Rs 40 crore from Rs 386 crore spent earlier on the first mission,Project Director Mylswamy Annadurai told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.

Chandrayaan-2,which is expected to be launched in September 2013,is a lunar landing mission,while the earlier one (Chandrayaan-1) was only an orbiter,Annadurai said.

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ISRO had terminated Chandrayaan-1 odyssey on August 30 2009,a year after it was launched in October,after it failed to re-establish contact,lost the previous day,with the lunar craft.

The second mission,which will have an orbiter,a lander and a rover,is planned to be launched onboard Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle from Satish Dhawan Space Centre,Sriharikota.