Chandrayaan-1 Indian Moon Craft Launches from Planck's Constant

India's national space agency, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) today launched Chandrayaan-1 an unmanned lunar exploration spacecraft.

The mission includes a lunar orbiter as well as an impactor. 'Chandrayaan-1' (in Hindi) roughly translates to 'Mooncraft-1'.

India joins the US, Russia, China, and Japan in space. This past spring, Iran sent an unmanned rocket carrying a dummy satellite into space; despite that, their space program is still quite primitive by modern standards and some experts doubt that their latest launch actually reached the internationally agreed on beginning of "space," set at 60 miles above the earth [MSNBC].

Years ago, DefenseTech.org argued that Iran's space missions could act as 'technological Trojan Horses' to help Iran develop both range and warhead improvements.

And yes, there has already been a Muslim in space, and a female one at that, although she was not an astronaut on an Islamic space vessel but rather a space tourist with the Russian space program.

One may wonder why Islamic countries with brazillions of petro-dollars haven't actually embarked on a manned space mission program. There are two answers:

Photo Credit: Spiegel Online

All the money is going into constructing madrassas and mosques. Nearly 200 new mosques are going up in Germany alone. Here is one being planned for Ehrenfeld, a district of Cologne.

Why bother investing in a space program when it's cheaper to convert, subdue or kill all infidels and end up controlling space anyway?

Scientific backwardness: Most Muslim space programs are being delayed awaiting development of a working match.

Website: Chandrayaan - indian mission to moon

Caption to the photo at the top of the page:

It was such a joy and proud moment to witness India’s first moon mission.

Group of friends decided around 9 PM in the night to take a drive to sriharikotta to witness the Chandrayaan -the first unmanned moon mission by ISRO , also the famous work horse of ISRO the Polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) in action.

Even though we have started very early in the morning ( 4.14 AM), the heavy rain and tough driving conditions extended out journey then expected, Once we are in the SHAR road it was a such a tense moment in the car on whether we will be able to be there on time, Then at 6.20 we have decided to pull the vehicle and set our camera's( in spite we are away nearly 4 KMs from the best vantage point) we had only 40 seconds to witness it, and we were using the binocular to scan the launch site for a confirmation, And with in a few seconds we have seen a very bright light in the horizon started to raise from the earth towards the sky. It happened so quick that i lift my camera fitted with 200 mm lens and seen through the view finder , oh no, it was full dark, i forgot to remove my lens cap and I lost the precious 2 seconds and by the time the vehicle disappeared in to a thick sheets of cloud, and with in seconds it pierced through the cloud and appeared again, the flame is so bright that my predicted exposure calculations are very wrong and that frame got over exposed, I have changed the settings straightaway and took 5 shots, This is the one of it, In 15 seconds from the left off it disappeared in to the sky away from our site,

The experience was so dramatic that after 8 or 9 seconds on the lift off the sound waves travel to you in a thunderous effect, the noise was so loud that you feel that you hit by a wave of roaring sound and you literally feel that the ground under you is vibrating even in a 10 km distance from ground zero. We have experienced that sound wave was hitting us and one can very well feel the way it travels from the launch pad and reach you.

One unforgettable experience, thanks dr.srini, vidhya, sridhar for the great company. Srini had his 600 VR with the 1.4 teleconvertor and should have a better image then mine, as while returning i went through his LCD and noticed the vapor coming out of the surface of the rocket was well captured that indicated that the amount of heat generated through the friction by the high speed lift off.

Guys the deepavali has started, and such a privilege to witness it.