Story of Chandrayaan-1

 

It was the first Indian lunar probe under the Chandrayaan program. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organization in October 2008 and operated till August 2009. The mission included a lunar orbiter and an impactor.

                                                                                     India launched the spacecraft using PSLV-XL rocket on 22 October 2008 at 00:52 UTC from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

                                                 After almost a year, the orbiter started suffering from several technical issues including failure of the star tracker and poor thermal shielding; Chandrayaan-1 stopped communicating at about 20:00 UTC on 28 August, shortly after which ISRO officially declared that the mission was over. It operated for about 312 days as opposed to the intended two years, but however it attained most of its scientific objectives.

                  In July 2016, NASA used a ground-based radar system to relocate Chandrayaan-1 in lunar orbit, more than seven years after shut down. Repeated observations over the next three months allowed a precise determination of its orbit which varies between 150 to 270 km in altitude every two years.

                                                                                                        On 14 November 2008, the Moon Impact Probe separated from the Chandrayaan orbiter at 14:36 UTC and struck the south pole in a controlled manner, making India the fourth country to place its flag insignia on the Moon. The probe hit near the crater Shackleton at 15:01 UTC, ejecting sub-surface soil that could be analyzed for the presence of lunar water ice. The location of impact was named Jawahar Point.

                                                           The estimated cost for the project was ₹386 crores (US$54 million).