Chandrayaan-2 mission was delayed due to policy differences in UPA 2: G Madhavan Nair

The Chandrayaan-2 mission was to be originally launched in 2012, but was delayed due to policy difference under the UPA-2 government, former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair was quoted as saying to news agency ANI on Wednesday.

"Though the delay is not a serious issue, Chandrayaan-1 was launched 10 years back and a follow-up mission Chandrayaan-2 was originally planned to be launched in 2012. But due to policy differences under the UPA 2 government, it was delayed," he said on Friday.

"Under the NDA government, Modi Ji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) has given maximum thrust to space mission projects under the leadership of Dr Sivan, the current Chairperson of ISRO. Several designs have been made in the past few months. I would like to congratulate ISRO for getting ready such a complicated satellite," he added.

Mr Nair led the Chandrayaan-1 orbiter mission in 2008. He was as the Chairman of ISRO then and the Secretary in the Department of Space from 2003 to 2009. In October 2018, he joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).