NEW DELHI — The Indian space agency’s Mars Orbiter Mission is on target to lift off in the third week of October. “The Mars mission is getting ready at our Satellite Centre in Bengaluru [in southern India],” says Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan. “We are planning to start stacking [the launch vehicle] from July 29, and the launch will be any day from Oct. 21 from the spaceport at Sriharikota.” Following the launch, the mission is expected to take eight months to reach Mars.

India’s High Level Committee on Manufacturing, which is chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has approved a long-delayed plan to develop a 70- to 100-seat civilian aircraft. The program, which could be launched by the end of September, is expected to take seven years, with development taking five years and testing a further two years, says a government spokesman. The spokesman did not provide financial details.

NEW DELHI — India has raised doubts regarding the launch of its second robotic lunar mission — Chandrayaan II — due to development delays with its Russian-furnished lander. Due to launch next year, Chandraayan II will include an unmanned orbiter, a lander supplied by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and a rover to be developed by India for in-situ scientific exploration of the lunar surface.