India to launch second lunar mission next year: agency

NEW DELHI - India's state-owned space agency Sunday announced that it would launch its second lunar mission in January 2019.

"We are aiming to launch the mission on January 3 next year, but the window to land on the lunar surface is open till March 2019," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K. Sivan told media in the southern city of Bengaluru.

Under its second lunar mission called Chandrayaan-2, ISRO will try to get an orbiter analyse of the moon's conditions to collect data on its topography, mineralogy and exosphere. It will also attempt to land a rover on the moon's south pole.

India successfully launched its first mission, Chandrayaan-1, to the moon in 2008. It was launched on October 22, 2008, and included a probe, an impactor and an orbiter. Its moon impact probe crash-landed on the lunar surface on November 14, 2008.

The first lunar mission in India costed about 60 million US dollars.