Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's statement on the successful Launch of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft

The successful launch of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, India's first unmanned scientific mission to the moon, marks the first step in what we hope will be a historic milestone in India's space programme. The spacecraft was launched by the Indian Space Research Organization using India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV.

All the launch vehicle systems performed satisfactorily and the spacecraft has been successfully placed in an orbit around the earth.

This is the beginning of a two week long effort in which our scientists will now manoeuvre the spacecraft into expanding orbits around the earth before finally shifting it to an orbit around the moon.

Chandrayaan-1 will then orbit the moon and carry out high resolution remote sensing to prepare a 3-dimensional atlas of the moon. It will also carry out chemical and mineralogical mapping of the lunar surface.

The spacecraft carries eleven scientific instruments, five from India and six from universities and laboratories of the European Space Agency, USA and Bulgaria.

I congratulate all the scientists associated with this mission for the successful completion of the first step. When completed, the mission will put India in the very small group of 6 countries which have thus far sent space missions to the moon. Our scientific community has once again done the country proud and the entire nation salutes them. Thank you.

[Manmohan Singh]