The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) postponed the launch of its GSLV Mk III rocket, carrying the Chandrayaan 2 modules, only 56 minutes before liftoff in the early hours of July 15. The order to scrub the launch was issued in an exercise of “abundant caution”, according to ISRO officials, after they detected what they only described as a “technical snag” during the customary pre-flight checks.
Update (8:19 pm, July 15, 2019): According to Chethan Kumar of the Times of India, “a leak in the cryo stage led to the abortion of Chandrayaan 2”.
Chandrayaan 2 is a modular stack comprising three units: an orbiter, a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan. If the Mk III had lifted off successfully and injected the stack into an elliptical orbit around Earth, the trio would have reached the Moon by September. There, on September 6/7, Vikram would have attempted to perform a soft-landing over the lunar surface and roll Pragyan out. The trio collectively carried a suite of 14 instruments to perform detailed studies of the Moon’s surface, subsurface and atmospheric characteristics.