SPACE: India announces plan to land on moon in 2018. “The spacecraft is the Chandrayaan 2 and it consists of an orbiter, lander and rover configuration ‘to perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface,’ the ISRO said. ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar told PTI that the space organization is already in the process of getting the spacecraft ready for an expected launch during the first quarter of next year.”