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Chandrayaan-1 ready for next step |
Perfect start, Chandrayaan-1 ready for next step
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INDIA
, 22-October-2008
5:40:39 AM |
After a historic launch and a successful injection into the transfer orbit, India's first unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-1 is ready for the next big task.
Chandrayaan-1 has to get into the orbit around the moon where it will revolve for two years before returning back to the earth.
The moon spacecraft, was put into transfer orbit around the earth by the Polar Launch Vehicle PSLV-C11 after it blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
The 1,380 kg Chandrayaan-1, carrying 11 payloads, was released into a Transfer Orbit 18.2 minutes after the PSLV-C11 blasted off.
After a series of procedures over the next two weeks, the spacecraft would reach its desired Lunar orbit and placed at a height of 100 km from the Lunar surface, marking the operational phase of the mission which would put India in the elite lunar club.
Earlier, at the end of the 49-hour countdown, the 44.4 meter tall four-stage PSLV-11 lifted off from the second launch pad into a cloudy sky.
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.
Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair described the successful launch as a historic moment in India's space programme.
"The launch was perfect and precise. The satellite has been placed in the earth orbit. With this, we have completed the first leg of the mission and it will take 15 days to reach the lunar orbit," Nair announced in the mission control centre.
Speaking to NDTV, Chief of the Indian space program Madhavan Nair gave details about the moon mission.
NDTV: What will it do sir? Is it carrying human beings?
Madhavan: No. This is actually a totally instrumental system
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