Under an overcast sky at the Sriharikota spaceport on Monday, India took a giant leap to Moon.

Indian Space Research Organisation’s GSLV-MkIII carrying Chandrayaan-2 lifted off from Sriharikota at 2.43pm and, 17 minutes later, injected into a geostationary transfer orbit the lunarcraft comprising an orbiter, a lander and a rover. It is expected to make a soft-landing on Moon at 2.58am on September 7, making India only the fourth nation – after the US, Russia and China – to achieve such a feat.

It was a better-than-textbook launch as the vehicle took the lunarcraft to an orbit that is 6,000km higher than planned, thereby saving on fuel and increasing its life span. “We’ve bounced back with flying colours,” Isro chairman K Sivan said soon after the spacecraft was injected into the orbit.

Under an overcast sky at the Sriharikota spaceport on Monday, India took a giant leap to Moon.

Indian Space Research Organisation’s GSLV-MkIII carrying Chandrayaan-2 lifted off from Sriharikota at 2.43pm and, 17 minutes later, injected into a geostationary transfer orbit the lunarcraft comprising an orbiter, a lander and a rover. It is expected to make a soft-landing on Moon at 2.58am on September 7, making India only the fourth nation – after the US, Russia and China – to achieve such a feat.

It was a better-than-textbook launch as the vehicle took the lunarcraft to an orbit that is 6,000km higher than planned, thereby saving on fuel and increasing its life span. “We’ve bounced back with flying colours,” Isro chairman K Sivan said soon after the spacecraft was injected into the orbit.