On October 21, 2008, the Indian Space Research Organization launched its first mission to the moon. ‘On This Day in Space’ Video Series on Space.com
The mission was named Chandrayaan-1, and it consisted of both an orbiter and an impactor. It launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on an Indian rocket called the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, or PSLV-XL. It arrived in lunar orbit about three weeks later and dropped off the Moon Impact Probe, which crashed into the moon on November 14. The rest of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft stayed in orbit, where it collected and transmitted data from the moon to Earth for about a year. The mission ended abruptly 14 months ahead of its planned end date when scientists lost contact with the probe. Chandrayaan-1 did more than just demonstrate that India's space program was capable of launching missions to the moon; it also returned some amazing science results, like evidence of water ice on the moon.
The mission was named Chandrayaan-1, and it consisted of both an orbiter and an impactor. It launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on an Indian rocket called the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, or PSLV-XL. It arrived in lunar orbit about three weeks later and dropped off the Moon Impact Probe, which crashed into the moon on November 14. The rest of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft stayed in orbit, where it collected and transmitted data from the moon to Earth for about a year. The mission ended abruptly 14 months ahead of its planned end date when scientists lost contact with the probe. Chandrayaan-1 did more than just demonstrate that India's space program was capable of launching missions to the moon; it also returned some amazing science results, like evidence of water ice on the moon.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03On October 21st, 2008, the Indian Space Research Organization launched its first mission to the moon.
00:09The mission was named Chandrayaan-1, and it consisted of both an orbiter and an impactor.
00:14It launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on an Indian rocket called the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, or PSLV-XL.
00:21It arrived in lunar orbit about three weeks later and dropped off the moon impact probe, which crashed into the moon on November 14th.
00:28The rest of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft stayed in orbit, where it collected and transmitted data from the moon to Earth for about a year.
00:35The mission ended abruptly 14 months ahead of its planned end date, when scientists lost contact with the probe.
00:41Chandrayaan-1 did more than just demonstrate that India's space program was capable of launching missions to the moon.
00:46It also returned some amazing science results, like evidence of water ice on the moon.
00:52And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:56NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology