State-owned aerospace and defence company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has delivered the 'Orbiter Craft Module Structure' of Chandrayaan-2, India's second lunar exploration mission, to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellite centre in Bengaluru.
Chandrayaan-2, an advanced version of the previous mission, consists of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover configuration.
India had successfully launched Chandrayaan-1 on October 22, 2008.
HAL chairman and managing director T. Suvarna Raju said, the Orbiter Craft Module is a three-tonne category bus structure made out of a central composite cylinder, shear webs and deck panels.
The Orbiter with scientific payloads will orbit around the moon and the Lander will soft land on the planet at a specified site and deploy the Rover.
The scientific payloads onboard the Orbiter, Lander and Rover are expected to perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface.
According to ISRO's plans, Chandrayaan-2 will be launched by a Geo-Stationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-MKII) in the next two to three years.
