knuphix: India's Solar-Powered Moon Explorer Chandrayaan-1 Launches Successfully

Chandrayaan 2008 (10min)

Launched on Monday, Chandrayaan-1 is now more than 75,000 kms from the Earth's surface and moving along on its two-year mission to the Moon ...

Wikipedia article:

Chandrayaan-1 (Sanskrit: चंद्रयान-1) is an unmanned lunar exploration mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India's national space agency. The mission includes a lunar orbiter and an impactor. The spacecraft was launched by a modified version of the PSLV XL[1] on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. "Chandrayaan" roughly translates to "lunar-craft" in many Indian languages.

The remote sensing satellite weighs 1,308 kilograms (2,884 lb) (590 kilograms (1,301 lb) initial orbit mass and 504 kilograms (1,111 lb) dry mass) and carries high resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infrared, soft and hard X-ray frequencies. Over a two-year period, it is intended to survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography. The polar regions are of special interest, as they might contain ice.[2]

The spacecraft was successfully launched on 22 October 2008 at 06:22 IST (00:52 UTC).[3] After the spacecraft reaches its lunar transfer orbit, it will take 5.5 days to reach the Moon.[4] The estimated cost for the project is Rs. 3.86 billion (US$ 80 million)[5]. Two scientists considered largely responsible for the success of the project are Mylswamy Annadurai, the project director, and S. K. Shivkumar, considered the "father" of India's deep space network.[6]

The mission includes five ISRO payloads and six payloads from other international space agencies including NASA, ESA, and the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency, which are being carried free of cost.[7]Chandrayaan-1