India to launch moon mission after delay

India's space agency is set to make another attempt to launch its second lunar mission, a week after an earlier effort had to be called off. Scientists hope to make a soft landing on the moon's unexplored south pole.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said it had rescheduled the launch of its mission to the moon for 2.43 p.m. local time (0913 UTC) on Monday.

India's aim is to become the fourth country after the US, Russia and China, to land a spacecraft on the moon.

Space officials called off the Chandrayaan-2, or Moon Chariot 2, mission at the last minute a week ago, after a "technical snag," believed refer to a helium leak. The launch is set to take place from the island of Sriharikota, just north of the southern city of Chennai.

Aboard the rocket is an orbiter that will circle the moon for about a year taking surface images, and a landing vessel carrying a lunar rover named Vikram.

ISRO chief K. Sivan told The Hindu newspaper on Sunday that there was "no chance for any technical fault to arise now."

"When the technical fault happened, we stopped the countdown, identified the issue, and rectified it."

India's first lunar mission took place in 2008, when an orbiter scanned the surface with radar looking for signs of water.

The country also aims to land a probe on Mars, having already become only the fourth nation to put a satellite into orbit around the planet.rc/msh (AP, dpa)