BY : Satnews Daily


India has announced that its first lunar mission and first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, will launch in July or August 2008 instead of February as originally anticipated.

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said ISRO will be carrying out a series of tests on the satellite for the next six months. ISRO will then install a 32 meter diameter antenna on the satellite bus. It will also install instruments to aid in visual mapping of the Moon and its surface. Nair described Chandrayaan-1 as “an out-and-out indigenous satellite.”

Chandrayaan-1 is an unmanned lunar mission that includes a lunar orbiter and an impactor. The spacecraft will be launched by a modified version of India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The remote sensing satellite will weigh 1,304 kg and will carry high-resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infrared, soft and hard X-ray frequencies. Chandrayaan literally means "Moon Craft" in Sanskrit.

Over a two-year period, Chandrayaan-1 will survey the lunar surface to produce a complete three-dimensional map of its chemical characteristics and topography. The mission will include six ISRO payloads and six from other space agencies such as NASA, ESA and Bulgaria. ISRO estimates the mission cost at $83 million.