A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 6:22 AM IST. Its payload was a 1,380-kilogram spacecraft named Chandrayaan-1, India's first robotic mission to the Moon. The Indian Space Research Organisation had built the orbiter to map the lunar surface in unprecedented spectral detail. It carried eleven scientific instruments, including a key piece of hardware from NASA: the Moon Mineralogy Mapper.
Chandrayaan-1 entered lunar orbit on November 8. For nearly ten months, it beamed back data, completing over 3,400 orbits. The mission ended prematurely in August 2009 when communications failed. The spacecraft's true legacy emerged months later, from the terabytes of data it collected. Scientists analyzing the Moon Mineralogy Mapper's readings announced in September 2009 the detection of water molecules and hydroxyl across the Moon's surface, bound in the upper layers of regolith. This was not the water of lore, but a thin, sun-touched hydration. A separate instrument, NASA's Mini-SAR, also found evidence for water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the north pole.
The discovery overturned a long-held assumption of a bone-dry Moon. It forced a revision of theories about the Moon's formation and the history of water in the inner solar system. The data suggested a dynamic lunar surface where solar wind interacts with minerals to create and trap molecules.
Chandrayaan-1's success established India as a capable, cost-effective space power. More directly, its findings catalyzed a new wave of lunar exploration focused on volatiles. It provided the foundational map that guided subsequent missions, including India's Chandrayaan-3 landing near the south pole in 2023. The probe’s silent orbit laid the groundwork for a modern scramble to the Moon, driven by the potential resource its data revealed.