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The home-grown PSLV-C11, ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle, placed the spacecraft into a transfer orbit around the earth exactly 18.2 minutes after a textbook lift off at 6.22 am from the second launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in this island in the Bay of Bengal, 100 km north of Chennai.
The joy of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists knew no bounds as the 44.4 metre tall four-stage rocket majestically soared into the sky, capping their four years of toil for the first-ever mission that would travel beyond earth's orbit in the country's forty-year-old space programme.
"The launch was perfect and precise. It was a remarkable performance by the PSLV. The satellite has been placed in the earth orbit and with this we have completed the first leg of the mission. It will take 15 days to reach the lunar orbit," a beaming ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair announced.
President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani congratulated the space scientists on the successful launch.
When the spacecraft finally reaches its destination at 100 km above the moon surface after a series of manoeuvres over the next two weeks, it would signal India's arrival in the league of nations -- the US, Russia, European Space Agency, China and Japan which are already involved in lunar exploration.
India's last tryst with moon came way back in 1984 when Indian astronaut, Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma, travelled to space along with two Soviet cosmonauts. The focus now shifts to ISRO's telemetry, tracking and command network (ISCRAC) at Payenya in Bangalore, which will be the country's nerve centre for tracking and controlling Chandrayaan-1 over the next two years of its life span.
Chandrayaan-1 carries 11 payloads, including two instruments from the American space agency, NASA, which will assess mineral resources, map the polar regions, look for ice deposits and prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect the lunar surface for natural resources.
Coming after 44 years of its maiden rocket launch from Thumba in 1963, Chandrayaan-1 will also look for possible uranium deposits on the moon as India sets out to augment its energy capacity through international bilateral nuclear pacts.
Later addressing a press conference, the ISRO Chairman said the first leg and perhaps one of the most difficult parts of the journey to the moon has been completed successfully.
"The 360-tonne PSLV-C11 has precisely achieved the objective of placing the satellite in the orbit around the earth with its nearest point being 250 km (perigee) and the farthest around 23,000 km (apogee)," Nair said.
"If everything goes on well, on Nov 8 we will be injecting the spacecraft into the lunar trajectory."
Nair expressed the hope that India would be able to send the first man-mission to moon from Indian soil before 2015 and that mars was the next natural destination for the ISRO.
its a one of the wonderfull job. best of luck india
i need to know abput team members of the project
thanks for ur reply but i didnt ask for it.SO KEEP QUIET... NEVER SEND A REPLY AGAIN .DONT DELETE IT
we need to achieve more.
its our great achievement, congrats to all our scientists of ISRO from MURTHY, KRISHNAHAVE A NICE FUTURE TO ISRO AND WISH YOU ALL THE BEST FOR CHANDRAYAN II
CANGRAGLATIONS SIR.I WAS VERY INTERAST ABOUT SPACE
Really its an appriciating work by our scientists............Keep up the good work............INDIA should stand in a first place.............Dont forget this........................
I THINK U HAVE DONE A GREAT JOB. I WISH U CAN DO MORE BETTER THANKS FOR SENDING CHANDRAYAAN 1 AND SAVING CRORES OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. THANKS A LOT.
thanks
Congrats to Mr.Madavan nair and his team of ISRO
India has 11 national communications satellites in orbit. We have one of the largest national networks of satellites in the world. ISRO gets a return of $2 for every $1 spent on the space programme Today our 7 Indian-made and operated remote sensing satellites in orbit, is the largest number for any nation for civilian use. It can map at a resolution of less than a metre, and can count the number of soldiers anywhere on Earth. India has a third of the global market for remote sensing images at a resolution of 5-6 metres. The new Cartosat mapping satellite put into orbit now will provide higher resolution images and it joins its Indian twin that has been functioning since 2007. Our budget is less than $1billion a year, compared well with the $17 billion NASA budget. There is a $140 billion satellite launch market and we may get good returns with our Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), in the future. FOOLS AND FOREIGN AGENTS CONDEMN OUR SPACE PROGRMME.
India has 11 national communications satellites in orbit. We have one of the largest national networks of satellites in the world. ISRO gets a return of $2 for every $1 spent on the space programme Today our 7 Indian-made and operated remote sensing satellites in orbit, is the largest number for any nation for civilian use. It can map at a resolution of less than a metre, and can count the number of soldiers anywhere on Earth. India has a third of the global market for remote sensing images at a resolution of 5-6 metres. The new Cartosat mapping satellite put into orbit now will provide higher resolution images and it joins its Indian twin that has been functioning since 2007. Our budget is less than $1billion a year, compared well with the $17 billion NASA budget. There is a $140 billion satellite launch market and we may get good returns with our Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), in the future. FOOLS AND FOREIGN AGENTS CONDEMN OUR SPACE PROGRMME.
India's space journey started in BARC, Mumbai and the initial rockets were fabricated at the Central Workshop in BARC. Many christian controlled media were writing that it was started from a church in Thumba. It is not true. Thumba was selected later as it was closer to the equator. There was a vacant church in that area and the Dept used it. But it turned out to be an inauspicious starting, as far as Thumba was concerned. Initial plan was to make Thumba a space city. Unfortunately Kerala workers were very violent type. An agitation regarding an issue of a canteen eventually resulted in the workers beating up engineers and scientists and many had to jump out of the window to escape. Thumba being very near to the equator would have been ideal for the satellite launch as it would have saved fuel for each launch. But lack of security due to militant labour at lower level forced the department to shelve the idea of a space city at Thumba and shifted it to Sriharikkota.
In spite of West trying to sabotage our space and nuclear programme INDIA has progressed well. We need science and techology to survive the threat of natural calamities and other threats like asteroids, climate changes, plauges, famine and in the very very distant future to survive from a sun that is going to swallow earth. The Sun is slowly getting warmer as it burns the hydrogen in its core. In about 7 billion years the bloated Sun’s outer gas shell will engulf Earth. But in about 1.1 billion years itself, the brighter sun would have evaporated all the water from our planet. So human race in whatever future shape we are going to be, have to move to a newer planet or move our earth out of Sun’s harm way and this definitely require space technology. If in the immediate future India can locate helium-3, an isotope suitable for nuclear fusion and able to retrieve it in future missions, fusion reactor and unlimited power could be a reality as envisaged by Homi Bhabha..
this is anil from hyderabad,thnx for giving ur msg.i want to appreciate u.i want to learn more about chandrayan
Congratulations to Shri Madhavan Nair, Chairman ISRO and his team for this great achievement. BJP and Vajpayee deserve praise for giving the money for this project which is done at about half the cost of what would have been required by any other nation. Some christian controlled media in India was telling that when some people are hungry why to spend money on space projects. I still remember the day when Vikkram Sarabhai was killed at Thumba by two christian ladies who came out of his room and was seen by many, and yet the death was declared as due to heart failure. Homi Bhabha was murdered in an apparent plance crash on mount Blac by CIA. CIA also created the fake ISRO spy case to delay our development of liquid propellant system. A K Anthony who was a creation of CIA during the CIA funded Vimochana Samaram to oust the first communist government of Kerala was the beneficiary of the fake ISRO spy case as he became the CM of Kerala replacing Karunakaran
This reminds me of the story of Nero who was playing fiddle while Rome was on fire.What is the big urgency of launching a Satillite to explore moon.When the whole country's security, safety and economic progress is in peril, the decision to launch an unproductive mission seems erratic.Can these politicians develop any city like Kuala Lampur / Singapore with marvellous roads and buildings in 50 yrs to come? Even after 61 yrs of freedom, we are only begging at all the countries.The objective of this mission is to raise the collar of our politicians and hoodwink the public.What does this mission mean to a poor man who is not sure of getting his bread even once a day!Let the people think.
The poor in India will keep producing morechildren
Congratulations to ISRO, the Indian Scientists and the Government of India for it's accomplishments.I am proud of India's achievements
This is indeed a great milestone. Now can we do something about 350-400 million Indians who live under the poverty line.
A great achievement. Now how about a solution for an estimated 350-400 million who are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas. That would be a greater achievement, do'nt you think?
ISRO proved India as a proud country to join space exploration to moon. It will also prove beyond moon, and wish to achieve more in future.
congrats
we are highly proud of ours dedicative scientists.congratulations to all of them for this great success.no mandir ,no masjid ,only development.all of us are only indians to serve our motherland.
The successful launch of Chandrayan 1, has made all indians proud. The day is not far when the whole world will be looking towards India for Technology, culture, Fashion, Food, Tourism etc etc. Let's work together to make India clean of corrupt politicians. Integrity, patriotism and secularism will be the milestones which will lead us to our dream nation.
Suresh KJ Pillai - i appreciate your dream but expecting our nation to be free of corrupt politcos is asking for the moon.
Now real Diwali start, Happy Dipawli nad Happy new year to India.
Congratulations to Indian Scientist for the Great achievement after its Independence, At the time of India has no technology to manufacture sewing needle now India has become one of the most advanced technology countries in the world.May God help the people of India to give talented persons to help develop our motherland scientifically and agricultulaly to be absolutely self sufficient country on the face of the earth.We are all proud for our motherland,Girish Kaji
congrats on the great venture, we are proud of you
