October Sky

Nearly Five years after the project was cleared by Indian Gov. CHANDRAYAAN-1 is scheduled for launch on October 22. If the "October Sky" remains clear then the spacecraft will begin its Eight day long journey towards moon traveling nearly 3,86,000 kilometers to settle in its final orbit.

Chardrayaan-1 is the first Indian Mission to the Moon devoted to high-resolution remote sensing of the lunar surface features in visible, near infrared, X-ray and low energy gamma ray regions. This will be accomplished using several payloads already selected for the mission. In addition a total of about 10 kg payload weight and 10 W power are earmarked for proposals, which are now solicited. The mission is proposed to be a lunar polar orbiter at an altitude of about 100 km and is planned to be launched by 2007-2008 using indigenous spacecraft and launch vehicle of ISRO. The mission is expected to have an operational life of about 2 years.

Spacecraft for lunar mission is :

• Cuboid in shape of approximately 1.50 m side.
• Weighing 1304 kg at launch and 590 kg at lunar orbit.
• Accommodates eleven science payloads. Out of these Six will be Indian instruments.
• Read more here.