How Chandrayaan Started?

Chandrayaan is a common name for all moon missions by India. Chandrayaan-I is the first mission where a lunar craft will be launched using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The lunar craft will orbit around the moon at a distance of 100 km from the moon’s surface.

The idea of moon mission was considered in a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1999. The idea was then discussed in the Astronautical Society of India in 2000. Based on the recommendations of the members of these scientific groups to ISRO, National Lunar Mission Task Force was formed.

Leading Indian scientists and technologists participated in the Task Force and discussed the feasibility of the mission. The Task Force recommended that given the technical expertise of ISRO it will be extreme worthwhile to plan an Indian Mission to the Moon. It also provided primary scientific objectives of such a mission as well as launch and spacecraft technologies that need to be developed.

About 100 eminent Indian scientists from various science fields discussed on the Study Report given by the Task Force team in April 2003. After detailed discussions, it was unanimously recommended that India should undertake the Mission to Moon, particularly in view of the renowned international interest on moon and to provide the needed boost to basic science an engineering research in our country.

Thus, Chandrayaan, the mission to land on moon originated. In November 2003, Government of India approved ISRO’s proposal for Chandrayaan-I.