By Prensa Latina,
Nueva Delhi : After a successful lift-off, the Indian-built PSLV-C11 rocket on Wednesday placed lunar orbiting spacecraft Chandarayaan-1 into a transit orbit.
With the launching, India entered the select group of countries that are exploring the Moon.
Starting from that elliptic position, in a 158-mile perigee from the Earth’s surface, Chandarayaan-1 will use its liquid transfer motor to ascend to farther earth’s orbits, until it re-launches itself to the moon and occupy a position on its own North Pole.
It will take 15 days, according to predictions by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to complete its path and occupy a position into lunar orbit, around 62 miles high.
The carrier spacecraft, in its fourth successful launch, lifted off at 06:22, local time, from the launchpad II of the launching polygon of the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, in the coastal area of southern Andhra Pradesh state.
Chandrayaan-1, with 3,042 pounds, carries 11 sets of instruments, with which it will study the lunar surface during the two coming years.
This information will contribute to make maps of the Earth’s natural satellite and to specify if it has water and energy sources, as the substance helium-3.
To dispel doubts about expenses, in times of financial worries, ISRO Chair G. Madhavan Nair said its cost, around $80 million, makes it the cheapest project of those materialized so far.
Of the instruments on board of the sensor, five were designed and developed entirely in India, three belong to the European Space Agency, two to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and one to Bulgaria.
The Chandarayaan-1 program counts on participation of 13 international affiliates, and it is the 68th mission since the Soviet Union started lunar exploration on January 2, 1959, followed by the United States three months later.
The other countries that are currently carrying studies on the moon are China, Japan, and the European Space Agency.