India launches 1st moon mission, entering Asian space race with fresh effort to map the moon Scientists have better maps of distant Mars than the moon where astronauts have walked. But India hopes to change that with its first lunar mission. Chandrayaan-1 - which means "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit - launched from the Sriharikota space center in southern India early Wednesday morning in a two-year mission aimed at laying the groundwork for further Indian space expeditions, according to the AP. Enthusiastic scientists tracked the take off on computer screens as they lost sight of the rocket in heavy clouds. "This is a historic moment for India," Indian Space Research Organization chairman G. Madhavan Nair said. "We have started our journey to the moon and the first leg has gone perfectly well," he said, adding that they hoped to "unravel the mystery of the moon." Chief among the mission's goals is mapping not only the surface of the moon, but what lies beneath. India joined what's shaping up as a 21st century space race with Chinese and Japanese crafts already in orbit around the moon. The United States, which won the 1960s race to send men to the moon, won't jump in this race with its new lunar probe until next spring, but it is providing key mapping equipment for India's mission. To date only the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China have sent missions to the moon.

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