(November 15, 2008) India becomes the sixth country in the world to reach the Moon,
after America, Russia, European Space Agency, Japan and China. The first lunar probe
from India landed successfully on the moon Friday around 8.30 pm, as part of a two-year
mission aimed at laying the groundwork for further Indian space expeditions, the Indian
Space Research Organization said. The tricolour was painted on all sides of the 29
kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP) which was attached to the top portion of the main lunar
orbiter, Chandrayaan. ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair said cameras on board have been
transmitting images of the moon back to Indian space control. Chief among the lunar
mission's goals is mapping not only the surface of the moon, but what lies beneath.
If successful, India will join what is shaping up to be a 21st century
space race with Chinese and Japanese crafts already in orbit around the moon. The
unmanned moon mission was launched from the Sriharikota space centre in southern India
on Oct. 22. The box-shaped lunar probe carried a video imaging system, a radar altimeter
and a mass spectrometer. The video imaging system was intended to take the pictures
of the moon's surface, the radar altimeter was to measure the rate of descent of the
probe to the lunar surface and the mass spectrometer was for studying the extremely
thin lunar atmosphere. The Moon Impact Probe was one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-1
spacecraft, a space agency statement said. To date only the U.S., Russia, the European
Space Agency, Japan and China _ and now India _ have sent missions to the moon. The
moon mission comes just months after India finalized a deal with the United States
that recognizes India as a nuclear power, and leaders hop the mission will further
enhance its prestige. India plans to follow this mission with landing a rover on the
moon in 2011 and, eventually, a manned space program, though this has not been authorized
yet.