An Indian probe landed on the moon on Friday, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced, in a milestone for the country's 45-year-old space program. The probe touched down on the moon at 8:34 P.M. (1504 GMT), 25 minutes after it was ejected from an unmanned spacecraft orbiting the moon, a spokesman said. The probe carrying three instruments and with the Indian flag painted on its outer panes settled in a crater in the moon's south pole, spokesman S. Satish said. “During its descent from Chandrayaan-1 an onboard video camera transmitted lunar pictures to the ISRO command center,” Satish said in the southern Indian city of Bangalore where the national space agency is headquartered. Scientists monitoring the probe cheered as ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair announced the success of the country's first lunar mission, which began on Oct. 22 when a rocket transported Chandrayaan-1 into space. India started its space program in 1963, developing its own satellites and launch vehicles to reduce dependence on overseas agencies. The timing of India's proud moment, Friday, had been specially designed to coincide with Children's Day. The United States, the former Soviet Union and the European Space Agency comprising 17 countries already have their flags on the moon. The Indian tricolor is painted on all sides of the 29-kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP) which is attached to Chandrayaan-1. The inclusion of the MIP as part of the Chandrayaan mission came at the suggestion of former president A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, a former rocket scientist, during the International Lunar Exploration Working Group conference held at Udaipur in November 2004, the Times of India said. The Indian tricolor had been hoisted on Mount Everest and Antarctica. Friday's MIP flight is a forerunner to the second Indian moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, which will carry a Russian rover and a lander slated for lift-off between 2010 and 2012.
