The unmanned Chandrayaan-I spacecraft blasted off smoothly from a launch pad in southern Andhra Pradesh, India to embark on a two-year mission of exploration.

The robotic probe will orbit the Moon, compiling a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and mapping the distribution of elements and minerals.

The launch is regarded as a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with other space-faring nations in Asia.

The Chandrayan-I mission envisages placing a 525-kg satellite in a polar orbit 100-km above the moon. The satellite will be launched using a modified version of India’s indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The spacecraft will initially be launched into a geo-synchronous transfer orbit, and subsequently maneuvered into its final lunar orbit using its own propulsion system.

Once that happens, India will join an exclusive club of four nations - the United States, Russia and China - that have the capabilities to launch a moon mission.

India’s experience in rocketry began in ancient times when fireworks were first used in the country, a technology invented in neighboring China - which had an extensive two-way exchange of ideas and goods with India and was connected by the Silk Road.

The military use of rockets by Indians during the Mysore war inspired William Congreve to invent the Congreve rocket, the predecessor of modern artillery rockets, in 1804.

After India gained independence from British occupation in 1947, Indian scientists and politicians saw the potential of rocket technology in both defense applications and research and development.

Recognizing that a country as demographically large as India would require its own independent space capabilities, and seeing the early potential of satellites in the fields of remote sensing and communication, these visionaries set about establishing a space research organization.

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was the founding father of the Indian space program and is considered a scientific visionary by many, as well as a national hero. After the then Soviet Union launched the Sputnik in 1957, he saw the potential that satellites provided.

India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who saw scientific development as an essential part of India’s future, placed space research under the jurisdiction of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1961.

DAE director Homi Bhabha, who was the father of India’s atomic program, then established the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) with Sarabhai as director in 1962.

Unlike every other major space program with the exception of Japan and Europe, India’s capabilities were not born out of an existing military ballistic missile program, but instead from the practical goal of eventually acquiring satellite launch capabilities.

From its inception in 1962, the Indian space program began establishing itself with the launch of sounding rockets, which was complemented by India’s geographical proximity to the equator. These were launched from the newly established Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.

Since day one, the space program had grand ambitions of developing indigenous technology and India soon began developing its own sounding rockets, using solid propellants - these were called the Rohini family of sounding rockets.

And, recognizing the need for indigenous technology, and the possibility of future instability in the supply of parts and technology, the Indian space program endeavored to indigenize every material supply route, mechanism and technology.

As the Rohini program continued to launch sounding rockets of greater size and complexity, the space program was expanded and eventually given its own government department, separate from the Department of Atomic Energy.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was created in 1969 from the INCOSPAR program. Since then, there have been a series of major milestones.

The experimental phase included the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), the Satellite Telecommunication Experiment (STEP), remote sensing application projects, satellites like Aryabhata, Bhaskara, Rohini and APPLE, and the development of launch vehicles SLV-3 and ASLV.

This led to the current operational space systems like Indian National Satellite (INSAT) series for telecommunication, television broadcasting, meteorology and disaster warning and the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) for resource monitoring and management.

The next step was the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) used for launching the IRS satellites and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for launching the INSAT class of satellites.

In the last 28 years, ISRO has sent 22 rockets aloft, starting with the SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle), and moving on to the ASLV (Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle), the PSLV, and finally the GSLV. Of these launches, 16 have been successful - 12 on the trot - while six have failed.

On the military side, the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) was formed in 1958.

Today, DRDO is a network of 51 laboratories which are deeply engaged in developing defense technologies covering various disciplines, like aeronautics, armaments, electronics, combat vehicles, engineering systems, instrumentation, missiles, advanced computing and simulation, special materials, naval systems, life sciences, training, information systems and agriculture.

In 1979, DRDO launched its Integrated Missile Development Program that, over the years, has recorded some major successes. Among these are: the Agni-I, (Agni means “fire” in Hindi) with a range of 700-800 km, and Agni-II, with a 2,000 km range that have been inducted in the Indian Army. The second test flight of Agni-III on April 12, 2007 was successful.

This apart, the Prithvi tactical battlefield support missile has been deployed with the army (150 km range) and air force (250 km), while the naval version (350 km) is on the drawing board.

Three other missiles are also under development: Akash, a 30 km mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) system; the Trishul, a nine-km quick-reaction SAM touted as India’s answer to the US Patriot missile; and the Nag, a four-km anti-tank guided missile.

In addition, DRDO in tandem with Soviet scientists has developed the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and its variants for the army, navy and the air force.

Given all these capabilities, the moon is a logical step for India to even more distant frontiers.

Good luck India!

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