The sources from Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) informed yesterday, that India’s first unmanned mission to the Moon-Chandrayaan-1 would finally be launched on 22nd October, after repeated delays. 

Five years ago, the government had passed Rs 386 crore lunar mission, but due to some reasons or the other, the historic launch of the satellite was delayed quite a few times. On Oct 22nd, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) carrying the Chandrayaan-1 satellite will blast off at 6:20 am, as the weather conditions will be favorable at that time. 

Last week, the satellite was transported from Chennai to Sriharikota in a special vehicle. Now it has arrived at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the coastal town, which is nearly 100 km from Chennai. It is being expected that later this week, the spacecraft would be mated with ISRO's work-horse rocket, PSLV-C11. 

Eleven payloads would be carried by the spacecraft, which includes five from India and six from the US, Europe and Bulgaria. 

Chandrayaan-1 would be launched with the aim to map the topography and the mineralogical content of the lunar soil, which it will do by orbiting the Moon at an altitude of 100 km. 

Other than this, a Moon Impact Probe payload would also be carried by Cahndrayaan-1 in order to demonstrate the technology required towards landing on the Moon’s surface. 

This lunar mission is being seen as a step forward towards the exploration of outer space and inter-planetary mission.