Moon News  
India to announce lunar mission date this month

by Staff Writers
Bangalore, India (AFP) Feb 13, 2008
India will announce the date of its first lunar mission by the end of this month, the head of the country's space agency said Wednesday.

A report in the Times of India Wednesday said that the launch of Chandrayaan-1, originally planned for April, had been "tentatively postponed" until June or July because of technical reasons.

But Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair said in response that the date of the unmanned mission had yet to be decided.

India will join Asian nations Japan and China in moon exploration with the planned robotic mission. The spacecraft will conduct a lunar orbit at a distance of 385,000 kilometres (240,000 miles) from Earth.

China's Chang'e I lunar satellite took off on October 24 after Japan launched the Kaguya on September 14.

India's first robotic mission, budgeted at 100 million dollars, will be followed by another in 2012, ISRO has said. A timetable for a manned mission will be announced this year.

Spacefaring nations are accelerating their quest to reach the moon more than three decades after the last human landing, and use it as a springboard to explore planets beyond.

The US Apollo programme resulted in the only manned spaceflights to the moon, with six landings from 1969 to 1972.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


NASA Recruiting Volunteers For Out Of This World Jobs
Peterson AFB CO (SPX) Feb 08, 2008
Only 12 human beings have set foot on the moon. You could be the thirteenth ... if you make the cut. NASA's current recruiting effort for a new class of astronaut candidates specifies that the International Space Station and the return to the moon are part of the agency's goals, and this class will be the first to be trained to achieve them.







  • Predicting The Radiation Risk To ESA's Astronauts
  • All systems go for SKorea's space-ready kimchi
  • Canadian Astronauts Julie Payette And Robert Thirsk To Go On Space Missions In 2009
  • Doctors Give Green Light For Flight Of Next Space Tourist

  • Still Grinding After All These Years Makes For Much Opportunity
  • NASA Budget Request Strong On Earth Weak On Mars
  • ESA Presents Mars In 3D
  • Mars In Their Sights

  • Nuclear Power In Space - Part 2
  • Outside View: Nuclear future in space
  • Nuclear Power In Space

  • Life On Frosted Earths
  • Weird Object May Be Result Of Colliding Protoplanets
  • Search For New Planets Part Of Ambitious New Sky Survey
  • Two Unusual Older Stars Giving Birth To Second Wave Of Planets

  • NRL Scientists Produce Carbon Nanotubes Using Commercially Available Polymeric Resins
  • With A Jolt Nanonails Go From Repellant To Wettable
  • Nano-based antimicrobial paint is created
  • Berkeley Researchers Make Thermoelectric Breakthrough In Silicon Nanowires

  • Spaceflight Shown To Alter Ability Of Bacteria To Cause Disease
  • Cardiovascular System Gets Lazy In Space
  • Creating The Ultimate Artificial Arm
  • A Rocket-Powered Prosthetic Arm

  • ILS Proton Launches THOR 5 Satellite
  • Bigelow Aerospace And Lockheed Martin Converging On Terms For Launch Services
  • USAF Awards United Launch Alliance Three Delta IV Missions
  • Vandenberg Prepares For First Atlas V Launch

  • Gearing Up For World's Largest Rocket Contest
  • Jules Verne ATV Launch Approaching
  • Ahmadinejad Says Iran Will Launch Two More Satellites
  • Propulsion Technology Mostly Unchanged After 50 Years

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement