India, Russia Ink Agreement On Chandrayaan-2

Bangalore: ISRO declared its second lunar mission, a landing-cum-orbiting plan, to be undertaken jointly with Russia around 2011-12. The unmanned Chandrayaan-2 will be coming up closely on the heels of Chandrayaan-1, which is due for launch in April next year. Chandrayaan-2 will be unveiled on the indigenous geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle. It involves a lunar orbiting spacecraft, to be made by ISRO, and a lander/rover, to be made by Roskosmos, to explore the Moon''s surface. Mr G. Madhavan Nair, ISRO Chairman, and Mr A. Perminov, Director of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, inked the cooperation agreement in Moscow on November 12 during the visit of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. ISRO described the pact as a major milestone in the long-standing cooperation in outer space between the two countries. The spacecraft is in the final stages of integration and testing, and will be unveiled onboard the PSLV.