Chandrayaan-1 Mission: mission and targets

Project start

October 22, 2008

Declared end

August 28, 2009

The start the archive declares is the start of the project, not the launch, and an end it does not declare does not mean the mission is still running.

Targets you can open in 3D:

• Moon

A declared target is what the archive files the mission’s data under, not a record of observation.

Chandrayaan-1 was launched on 22nd October, 2008 using a variant of the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL). The spacecraft was inserted into an elliptical lunar polar orbit on 8th November and was placed in the desired 100km orbit on 12th November. The Chandrayaan-1 mission successfully operated until 28th August, 2009, when a communication failure led to loss of contact and the mission was called off on 30th August. Chandrayaan-1 marks the beginning of India's planetary exploration programme initiated by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Apart from five Indian built payloads (TMC, HySI, LLRI, HEX and MIPS), it also carried two Indo-Foreign collaborative payloads (C1XS and SARA) and four foreign payloads (M3, mini-SAR, SIR-2 and RADOM). Chandrayaan-1 mission represents a truly international effort in planetary exploration. After reaching the designated lunar polar orbit and checks of various spacecraft sub-systems and parameters, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) was released on 14th November to reach a designated area near the South Pole. Images captured by the camera on board MIP allowed identification of its impact point. This followed commissioning of the scientific payloads. One of the payloads, the Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM), was switched on soon after lift-off and the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) was commissioned during one of the early earth bound orbits. The other eight payloads were commissioned one by one between November 16 and December 9. The mission operation was relatively smooth until April 26th, 2009, when the failure of star sensor led to the decision to raise the spacecraft orbit from 100 to 200 km to reduce the number of maneuvers needed for orbit maintenance. On August 28 2009, loss of communication with the spacecraft led to termination of the mission. Mission Objective - To realize the mission goal of harnessing the science payloads, lunar craft and the launch vehicle with suitable ground support systems including Deep Space Network station. - To realize the integration and testing, launching and achieving lunar polar orbit of about 100 km, in-orbit operation of experiments, communication/ telecomm and, telemetry data reception, quick look data and archival for scientific investigation by identified group of scientists.

Quoted in English, as the archive publishes it, read on October 4, 2026.

Identifier in the archive, which is its citation: urn:isro:isda:context:investigation:mission.ch1

NASA Planetary Data System, PDS Registry, investigation context products. Dates and targets read on September 29, 2026; how to cite the archive: https://pds.nasa.gov/datastandards/citing/

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