Chennai: “It is a pity that countdown was stopped. They (scientists) might have noticed something wrong. I feel the problem might (have been even) small but they must not have wanted to take a chance,” PTI quoted former space scientist Nambi Narayanan as saying yesterday.
The countdown for the launch of Chandrayaan 2 scheduled for 2.51 am was stopped 56 minutes and 24 seconds before lift-off at 1.55 am following the announcement from the Mission Control Centre.
The space agency has not yet officially announced the nature of the technical snag that halted the country’s second moon mission.
However, Nambi Narayanan commended the team for halting the mission instead of going ahead when they noticed the problem. He said in a PTI report that calling off the mission was disappointing not just for the general public but even for the brains behind the Rs 978 crore project. The former ISRO scientist is known his contributions in the development of cryogenic technology in the country’s space programme.
According to some media reports, a technical snag developed in the launch vehicle system as the cryogenic fuel was being loaded.
“Scientists noticed 10 per cent pressure drop in one of the nine helium tanks used to maintain a pressure of around 300 psi to keep the temperature of liquid hydrogen at minus 253 degrees centigrade. To carry out the inspection, the fuel in the rocket has to be unloaded and the vehicle taken back for further investigation,” read a report.
It is said a team has been constituted to analyse the reason behind the fault.