Mamata smells a rat in playing up of Chandrayaan-2

Coming down heavily on the Narendra Modi government, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee here on Friday alleged that it was playing up Chandrayaan-2 to divert the masses attention from the current economic situation.

“It is as if Chandrayaan launch is the first such happening in the country. As if before they came to power, no such missions were taken up. It is an attempt to divert attention from economic disaster,” Banerjee said in the Assembly.

Her comments came during a discussion on the National Register for Citizens (NRC) final list published in Assam.

The Chandrayaan-2 is the second moon mission and the first moon landing mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The final descent of Chandrayaan-2 on the moon is slated in the early hours of Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra modi will be at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru on Saturday to watch the final descent of Chandrayaan-2, a three-module spacecraft comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, on the lunar south pole.

“The lander Vikram is scheduled to powered descent between 01:00 and 02:00 hrs IST on September 7, which will then be followed by touch down of Lander between 01:30 and 02:30 hrs IST,” ISRO said in a statement.

After the moon touchdown by Vikram, the rover Pragyan will roll down from it to carry out the research for which it is designed.

Meanwhile, Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter continue to go around the moon in an orbit of 96×125 km.

On July 22, the Rs 978 crore Chandrayaan-2 was launched into the space by India’s heavy lift rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mk III) in a text book style.