Chandrayaan-2 Mission: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully completed the launch rehearsal of the Chandrayaan-2 mission which is slated to be launched on 22 July. The 20-hour countdown for the launch of Chandrayaan-2, India's second lunar exploration mission after Chandrayaan-1, began on Sunday evening. ISRO chairman K. Sivan had earlier made an announcement that the countdown for the rocket launch on will start at 6.43 p.m. on Sunday. During the countdown, the rocket and spacecraft's systems will undergo checks and fuel will be filled to power the rocket engines.

The GSLV-Mk III rocket with Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was originally scheduled for flight on July 15 at 2.51 a.m. However, the flight was postponed due to detection of a technical snag one hour prior to the rocket lift off. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday tweeted that the launch rehearsal of the Chandrayaan-2 mission has been succesfully completed and the performance was normal.

It is to be noted that Chandrayaan-2 mission is scheduled to launch on July 22. "Launch rehearsal of #GSLVMkIII-M1 / #Chandrayaan2 mission completed, performance normal #ISRO," tweeted ISRO.

Earlier on Saturday, former ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar had said that the mission is ready for launch on July 22. "Chandrayaan-2 is now ready for launch on 22 July. We intend to move towards the moon on August 14 and land on the moon around September 6. All the activities are in full swing and we are getting ready for the event on July 22," the former ISRO chief told ANI.

(With inputs from agencies)