At 3:21 am Pacific Daylight Time on November 8, India’s moon probe was successfully inserted into orbit around the moon.
The Chandrayaan-1 probe liquid engine was fired when the spacecraft passed at a distance of about 500 km from the moon to reduce its velocity to enable lunar gravity to capture it into an orbit around the moon. The spacecraft is now orbiting the moon in an elliptical orbit that passes over the polar regions of the moon.
India becomes the fifth country to send a spacecraft to Moon. The other countries, are the United States, former Soviet Union, Japan and China. Besides, European Space Agency (ESA), a consortium of 17 countries, has also sent a spacecraft to moon.
The two year mission of this probe includes 11 instruments. One is a device that will impact the moon, carrying telemetry devices as well as a flag of India. In the coming days, the height of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft’s orbit around the moon will be carefully reduced in steps to achieve a final polar orbit of about 100 km height from moon’s surface.
In separate news, India’s Space Research Organization (ISRO) has announced plans to place a human on the moon by 2015.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
