The postponement of the Chandrayaan 2 launch around 56 minutes before its scheduled take off time at 2.51 AM on July 15th has left many spectators who had come to witness the launch sad and disappointed. However they are all hopeful and felt that after all it is a machine and snags and technical glitches do happen at times. Most of the spectators were ready to revisit Sriharikota once a fresh launch date is announced.
Thousands of spectators were seeing leaving the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota post ISRO's (Indian Space Research Organisation) announcement that the launch is being postponed due to a technical snag and a fresh date will be announced later. All these spectators had registered for the event and had come down from far off places to witness the launch. These spectators were returning from the general visitors viewing gallery which ISRO has opened for general visitors.
Satish S, an architect hailing from Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu, had come all the way with a group of cyclists friends who had cycled down to Sriharikota for the whole day to reach the venue. They looked tired but were in high spirits despite the postponement of the launch. “We are sad as we had cycled for more than one hundred fifty kilometeres in the hot and humid weather to reach the venue. We expected to see the launch but it is fine we will come again once a fresh date is announced,” said Satish.
Vishnu a class 6th student had come to Sriharikota from Warangal in Telangana with his group of friends. They all were disappointed and sad due to the postponement but were hopeful that a fresh date will be announced soon and the Chandrayaan 2 mission will successfully take off then. “Although it is a little shocking for us as we expected to see the launch having eagerly waited for it after registering for it, but we are hopeful that a fresh date will be announced soon,” said Vishnu.
Raviraj R an IT professional from Chennai who had come down to view the launch with his wife and daughter felt that technical glitches can happen in any space mission and this is no exception after all so many technicalities are involved. “Luckily the ISRO team was able to detect the glitch before the final take off, otherwise the whole effort could have gone waste had something happened post the take off. In a way they can rectify the glitches and announce a fresh date so that it can be successful,” said Raviraj.
