President Ram Nath Kovind to go to Sriharikota to watch Chandrayaan-2 launch

NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind will be the top dignitary to witness the launch of the country's high-profile mission Chandrayaan-2 at Sriharikota at 2.51 am on Monday, according to some media reports.

He will come to Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR), along with his family members, by helicopter from Tirupati airport, the reports said.

However, there is no official announcement from Rashtrapati Bhavan till now.

On June 21, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman K Sivan had called on the President to brief him about the Chandrayaan-2 mission. If the reports are true, Kovind will become the third Indian President after A P J Abdul Kalam in 2005 and Pranab Mukherjee in 2013 to witness the live lift-off of a rocket at Sriharikota.

The Rs 1,000-crore Chandrayaan-2, India's second lunar mission, is very significant for the country as, if successful, it will put India in the elite space club of the three countries — Russia, the US and China — which had already developed the capability to soft-land their lunarcraft on the moon's surface.

Last month, even parliamentarians showed interests in watching the launch of the Chandrayaan-2 lunarcraft, which will be put into the geo-transfer orbit by GSLV MKIII rocket on July 15 for its onward journey to the moon.

A suggestion to allow MPs to witness the launch was made by Congress MP from Assam Ripun Bora during the question hour session of Parliament on June 27. To his suggestion, minister of state for space Jitendra Singh said that he would take up the matter with Isro.

In 2005, the then President Kalam, who had also worked in the Indian space agency during its nascent stage of operations, had witnessed the launch of PSLV-C6 rocket carrying surveillance satellite Cartosat-1 and also opened the second launchpad in Sriharikota.

After him, President Pranab Mukherjee in 2013 had witnessed the lift-off of PSLV C-20 rocket, which put Saral satellite in its orbit. Even PM Manmohan Singh had witnessed the live launch of a PSLV mission on September 9, 2012. On June 30 in 2014, PM Narendra Modi , during the first term of the NDA government, came to the launch centre to witness the launch of PSLV C-23 rocket that carried five foreign satellites belonging to four countries to space.

Not only VIPs, even general public is now coming to Sriharikota to watch rocket launches. On March 31, a special viewing gallery at Sriharikota was inaugurated. The viewing gallery can accommodate 5,000 spectators, who can witness a rocket launch as the launchpads are in straight line view from the gallery. This time too thousands of people have registered themselves to watch the launch of the country's second moon mission.

Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district is quite well connected to various cities. However, the nearest train station is at Sullurpeta, which is 18 km away. The nearest airport is at Tirupati, which is 73 km away. Even Chennai is just 80km from the launch centre.