Launch of Chandrayaan-1

Chandrayaan-1 was India's first lunar mission, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation from Sriharikota on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. It consisted of an orbiter and a small Moon Impact Probe, which was released and struck the surface near Shackleton crater. The spacecraft carried instruments from India, the United States, Europe and Bulgaria, including NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper. Its data helped researchers detect water molecules and hydroxyl on the lunar surface, a discovery that changed ideas about the Moon's dryness. Contact was lost in 2009, earlier than planned, but the mission is regarded as a milestone that opened the way to later Indian lunar and planetary missions.

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