India launches first mission to the moon

"Lift off is normal," said mission control as the Chandrayaan-1 blasted off from the Sriharikota space center in southern India. Chandrayaan means "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit.

Scientists, clapping and cheering, tracked the ascent on computer screens as they lost sight of the rocket in heavy clouds that covered the launch pad.

"This is a historic moment for India," said the Indian Space Research Organization's chairman, G. Madhavan Nair.

"We have started our journey to the moon and the first leg has gone perfectly well," he said, adding that they hoped the mission would "unravel the mystery of the moon."

Chief among the mission's goals is mapping not only the surface of the moon, but what lies beneath. Scientists have better maps of distant Mars than the moon, where astronauts have walked. But India now hopes to change that.

India plans to use the 3,080-pound (1,400-kilo) lunar probe to create a high-resolution map of the lunar surface and what minerals are below. Two of the mapping instruments are a joint project with NASA.

If the mission is successful, India will join what's shaping up as a 21st century space race with Chinese and Japanese crafts already in orbit around the moon.

The United States, which won the 1960s race to send men to the moon, will not jump into this race with its new lunar probe until next spring, but it is providing key mapping equipment for India's mission.

As India's economy has boomed in recent years, it has sought to convert its new found wealth - built on its high-tech sector - into political and military clout and stake a claim as a world leader. It is hoping that a moon mission will further enhance that status, coming just months after it finalized a deal with the United States that recognizes India as a nuclear power.

Until now, India's space launches have been more practical, carrying weather warning satellites and communication systems, said former NASA associate administrator Scott Pace, director of space policy at the George Washington University.

"You're seeing India lifting its sights," Pace said.

To date only the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China have sent missions to the moon.

While much of the technology involved in reaching the moon has not changed since the Soviet Union and the U.S. did it more than four decades ago, analysts say current mapping equipment allows the exploration of new areas, including below the surface.

In the last year, Asian nations have taken the lead in exploring the moon. In October 2007, Japan sent up the Kaguya spacecraft. A month later, China's Chang'e-1 entered lunar orbit.

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