The 3.8-tonne satellite will be taken to the moon on the 640-tonne GSLV Mk III (nicknamed "Baahubali"), India's most powerful rocket that's as high as a 15-storey building. This will be the third time it is being put to use.

After its lift-off from Sriharikota, the Chandrayaan 2 will orbit the Earth several times before being slung towards the moon. The 3.84 lakh-km journey, undertaken primarily to check if the lunar south pole has primordial water reserves, will take nearly two months.

All the equipment involved in the Chandrayaan 2 mission -- from its orbiter to lander and rover -- have been designed and manufactured in India. It is the sequel to the successful Chandrayaan 1, which helped confirm the presence of water on the moon in 2009.

An analysis published by Sputnik International claimed that the approximate $124-million price tag of the Chandrayaan 2 is less than half the budget of Hollywood blockbuster Avengers Endgame ($356 million). The Indian space agency has a budget that's 20 times less than NASA, its US counterpart.

If India succeeds in this moon mission, it will become the fourth country to soft-land a spacecraft on the lunar surface after the US, Russia and China. Israel had tried earlier this year but failed.

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar expressed his appreciation for the fact that the project director and the mission director of the Chandrayaan 2 are both women. Communist Party of India leader D Raja also termed the moon mission as a "great achievement".

However, ISRO chief K Sivan claimed that the time for celebration hasn't come yet. "The 15-minute final descent will be our most terrifying moments because we have never undertaken such a complex mission," he said.

The Chandrayaan 2 mission will carry the Vikram, a 1.4-tonne lander, which will in turn set the 27-kilogramme rover Pragyan down on a high plain between two craters on the lunar south pole.

The Chandrayaan 2 will separate from the rocket 973.7 seconds after its launch. After touchdown on the moon, the rover is expected to conduct experiments for 14 Earth days.