Thursday, May 5 2005 22:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Sriharikota: Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G Madhavan Nair today (May 5, 2005) said that the ISRO was progressing well on the moon mission and had completed the design of the spacecraft for the mission.

"One of the important ground elements is the deep space tracking network. A huge antenna with about 34 metre diameters is being designed in the country," he told a press conference at Sriharikota.

"We have organisations like Bhabha Atomic Research Centre as partners in this and we hope this will also come on time. So the progress of the Chandrayan mission is on the dot," he added.

Nair said that the ISRO had received about 32 proposals for auxiliary payloads for moon mission. "We have short-listed six proposals of which two from the US are under final consideration," he said.

Asked about next launches, he said that the ISRO had lined up two launches - GSLV and PSLV. The GSLV Mark III was slated to be launched in second half of 2007.