Chandrayaan-1

Mission Profile

Chandrayaan-1 was India's inaugural lunar mission, launched on 22 October 2008 aboard a PSLV-XL rocket and entering lunar orbit in November 2008 as the first Indian spacecraft to travel beyond Earth orbit. The orbiter carried eleven science payloads from India, ESA, Bulgaria, and NASA to map the Moon's mineralogy, geology, and elemental distribution at 5-100 km resolution. Most significantly, Chandrayaan-1's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument discovered hydroxyl molecules and water ice in permanently shadowed polar craters, confirming the presence of water on the Moon for the first time. Communication with the spacecraft was lost in August 2009 after 312 days of operation, but the mission's scientific legacy cemented India's credentials as a serious space exploration nation.