Chandrayaan-1, India's maiden moon spacecraft, was on Wednesday put into Transfer Orbit around the earth by the Polar Launch Vehicle PSLV-C11.
It is carrying 11 payloads, was released into a Transfer Orbit at a perigee (nearest point to earth) of about 250 km and apogee (farthest point from the earth) of about 23,000 km, 18.2 minutes after the PSLV-C11 blasted off as the scientists broke into jubilation at the mission control center.
This is the 14th flight of ISRO's workhorse PSLV, which had launched 29 satellites into a variety of orbits since 1993, and 13th successive one in a row.
Chandrayaan-1 is carrying 11 payloads, five entirely designed and developed in India, three from European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and two from US, which would explore the Moon over the next two years.
Chandrayaan-1 Will try to map high-resolution 3-D topography of entire moon, get mineral composition of surface,investigate presence/absence of water. Such detailed analysis, if successful, will be a first.
At Rs 386 crore, this is the cheapest moon mission so far.
Source: Indiatimes and IndianExpress