India launches first unmanned Moon Mission
India launched its first mission to the moon Wednesday, rocketing a satellite up into the pale dawn sky in a two-year mission to redraw maps of the lunar surface.
Clapping and cheering scientists tracked the ascent on computer screens after they lost sight of Chandrayaan-1 from the Sriharikota space center in southern India. Chandrayaan means "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit.
Indian Space Research Organization chairman G. Madhavan Nair said the mission is to "unravel the mystery of the moon."
"We have started our journey to the moon and the first leg has gone perfectly well," he said.
Chief among the mission's goals is mapping not only the surface of the moon, but what lies beneath. If successful, India will join what's shaping up as a 21st century space race with Chinese and Japanese crafts already in orbit around the moon.
To date only the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China have sent missions to the moon.
(from yahoo)
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Clapping and cheering scientists tracked the ascent on computer screens after they lost sight of Chandrayaan-1 from the Sriharikota space center in southern India. Chandrayaan means "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit.
Indian Space Research Organization chairman G. Madhavan Nair said the mission is to "unravel the mystery of the moon."
"We have started our journey to the moon and the first leg has gone perfectly well," he said.
Chief among the mission's goals is mapping not only the surface of the moon, but what lies beneath. If successful, India will join what's shaping up as a 21st century space race with Chinese and Japanese crafts already in orbit around the moon.
To date only the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China have sent missions to the moon.
(from yahoo)