'A perfect textbook launch'

India today joined an elite league of nations by successfully launching its first moon mission — Chandrayaan-1. A visibly confident set of Indian space scientists, headed by Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Chairman G Madhavan Nair, successfully concluded the first phase of the moon mission when the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft reached a highly elliptical initial orbit around six hours after lift-off.

Despite the 13 flights by ISRO's workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) conducted at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, since 1971, today's lift-off was a remarkable feat.

The beginning of the 52-hour countdown that started on Monday was accompanied by heavy rainfall from the north-east monsoon. But the rain gods provided a smidgen of luck for India's maiden moon mission by providing a very short break that perfectly coincided with the scheduled lift-off time.

At exactly 6:22 am today PSLV-C11 took off, visible to the spectators' eyes for barely three seconds before disappearing into thick grey clouds over Sriharikota. Minutes after the take-off, the rain returned. Later, mission observers confirmed that it was a "perfect text-book launch".

Two and a half hours after the lift-off, Nair along with a dozen of his senior colleagues briefed the media and said the real success of the moon mission will be known only after November 8, when Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft's orbit will be finally lowered to its intended 100 km height from the moon's surface. “Once the spacecraft leaves the earth-bound orbit, it is like jumping into a dark well even though our scientists have planned this mission perfectly,” Nair said.

Mylswamy Annadurai, project director for Chandrayaan-1, went a step further and said the success would be counted only after the two-year operational phase of the mission is completed. Nair added that India's first lunar mission is 99 per cent scientific.

With an array of instruments on board, Chandrayaan-1's will prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both the near and far side of the moon. It will also conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface for distribution of minerals and chemicals like magnesium, aluminium, silion, calcium, iron and titanium and high atomic number elements like radon, uranium and thorium.

Even before Chandrayaan-1 begins its mission, ISRO is all set to begin its work on Chandrayaan-2, a mission that intends to collect samples from the moon's surface, analyse and send back the data to earth. The government has approved the Rs 425-crore Chandrayaan-2 mission.