Chandrayaan 1 sent back images of Earth earlier this month
India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft, Chandrayaan 1, has placed a probe on the surface of the Moon. The probe, painted with the Indian flag, touched down at 2034 (1504 GMT), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. It will perform various experiments, including measuring the composition of the Moon's atmosphere. The mission is regarded as a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with other space-faring nations in Asia. The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says the success of the mission has been hailed in India where many see it as another sign of the country's emergence as a global power. Video journey Earlier this week Chandrayaan 1 began orbiting the Moon some three weeks after it was launched from a space centre in southern India. CHANDRAYAAN 1 1 - Chandrayaan Energetic Neutral Analyzer (CENA) 2 - Moon Impact Probe (MIP) 3 - Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM) 4 - Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) 5 - Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) 6 - Chandrayaan 1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS) 7 - Solar Panel
India sets its sights on the Moon In Pictures: India Moon mission The dropping of the Moon Impact Probe (MIP), weighing about 30kg, concludes the first phase of the mission. "During its descent from Chandrayaan 1, an onboard video camera transmitted lunar pictures to the ISRO command centre," spokesman S Satish said, AFP news agency reports. In the days to come, the probe will measure the composition of the Moon's ultra-tenuous atmosphere, or exosphere. For the next two years, Chandrayaan 1 will map a three-dimensional atlas of the Moon and also check for the presence of water-ice with the help of instruments built by India and other countries including the US, Britain and Germany. The chairman of India's space programme, Madhavan Nair, has described the mission as 95% successful so far and has announced a second lunar mission to be launched by 2012. "We have now successfully put our national flag on the lunar surface," he told a news conference. Mr Nair has also said India is considering sending a satellite to Mars.
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At 8:34 pm Indian time Friday night (1504 UTC), India became the fourth country to land its flag on the Moon.
The unmanned lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 ejected its Moon Impact Probe (MIP), which hurtled across the surface of the Moon at 1.5 kilometres per second (3000 miles per hour), and successfully crash landed near the Moon's south pole.
Besides carrying three important scientific instruments, the lunar probe also carried the image of the Indian national flag, painted on all sides.
India's tricolour is marked on all sides of the Moon Impact Probe
Chandrayaan-1 (meaning 'Moon craft' in Sanskrit) reached its target lunar orbit on Wednesday.  The orbiter will remain in a circular orbit 102 kilometres above the Moon's surface for two years.  Its instruments will be gradually commissioned over the next few days.

With this landing, India became both the fourth country to place a flag on the Moon and the fifth group to send a spacecraft to the Moon. The other countries which have sent spacecraft to the Moon are the United States, the former Soviet Union, Japan, and China, along with the European Space Agency (ESA), a consortium of 17 countries.  
Japan and China currently each have scientific satellites orbiting the Moon, though China has not yet put a spacecraft on the moon's surface.

The MIP has a mass of 29 kg, is about the size of a microwave oven, and was designed and assembled in India.
After the orbiter ejected it, the probe took about 25 minutes to reach the Moon's surface. 
On-board digital cameras made a high resolution movie of the surface during descent, and scientists also conducted measurements with the probe's mass spectrometer and radar altimeter.
Data was beamed back to India via the orbiter, and it is currently being processed and analysed.
The Moon's south pole 
Data from the altimeter experiments will be used to refine the instrument in order to control the soft landing of a future probe.  
Plans are already being prepared for the Chandrayaan-2 to be launched by 2012.

India's first lunar mission was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the Andhra Pradesh coast on October 22.
The launch vehicle was an Indian designed and built rocket that had been previously proven by carrying scientific and commercial payloads to earth orbit, including weather and communications satellites.
The cost of this mission is estimated at 340 crore (3.4 billion) rupees (US$78 million). 
The mission carries five scientific instruments built by India's technology sector, and six developed cooperatively with foreign nations.

Goals for the orbiter include making a detailed map of the Moon's chemical make-up and mineral resources, as well as a three-dimensional digital map of the entire surface. 
The mission will examine the surface for sources of water, and take comparison photos of the light side and dark sides of the surface.