ABSTRACT
India's space odyssey reached its finest hour on 22 October 2008, as Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C11 put Chandrayan-1 into its initial orbit, marking the spacecraft's long journey to the moon. By sending a spacecraft to the moon, India became the sixth country to do so after Russia, the US, European Space Agency, Japan and China. 1 On 8 November, the satellite broke away from the earth's gravitational field and started circling the moon. 2 It finally touched the surface of the moon on 14 November. 3 The main goal of the thrifty lunar mission — costing just $79 million, less than half that of similar expeditions by other countries — was to explore, assess and map lunar mineral resources. 4
