India's space agency says its first lunar probe has landed on the moon.
The
Indian Space Research Organization says the small unmanned Moon Impact
Probe detached from its orbiter and crash-landed as planned on the
lunar surface late Friday. The agency called it a "perfect operation."
During the probe's descent, officials say its video camera took and transmitted close-range images of the moon.
The
craft will analyze dust samples to support the Chandrayaan-1
spacecraft's two-year mission of mapping the moon's surface and what
lies beneath it.
The probe's landing came two days after
Chandrayaan-1 went into lunar orbit about 100 kilometers above the
moon's surface. The spacecraft was launched on October 22 from
Sriharikota, near the southeastern city of Chennai.
India is following in the path of its Asian rivals, Japan and China, who have already had spacecraft in orbit around the moon.
Indian
officials put the cost of this mission at $79 million. They say it will
lay the groundwork for future Indian space expeditions. The space
agency has said it wants to launch a manned mission to the moon by
2020, and has also set its sights on Mars.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
