Miniature Indian flags painted on four sides of the MIP signalled the country's symbolic entry into moon to coincide with the birth anniversary of the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, observed as Children's Day. India marked its presence on Moon on Friday to be only the fourth nation to scale this historic milestone after a Moon Impact Probe with the national tri-colour painted successfully landed on the lunar surface after being detached from unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1.

Joining the US, the erstwhile Soviet Union and the European Union, the 35-kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP) hit the moon exactly at 8.31 PM, about 25 minutes after the probe instrument descended from the satellite in what ISRO described as a "perfect operation".

"It will signify the entry of India on Moon," an ISRO official said.

Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) launched Chandrayaan-1 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, and Chandrayaan-1 reached the lunar orbit.

"India has started its journey to the moon," The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief G Madhavan Nair said after the launch, adding "The first leg has gone perfectly well. The spacecraft has been launched into orbit. The mission has opened a new chapter in the Indian as well as global space community," he said.

The spacecraft, which weighs approximately 1380 kg, carries eleven scientific instruments, build in India and six other instruments, developed in collaboration with the European Space agency, Bulgaria and the United States.Chandayaan-1 is expected to return data with the help of its high-resolution remote sensing of moon in the visible, near infrared, microwave and X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. ISRO will use the data to create a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface. Two other instruments from the U.S., the Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) and the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), will try to detect the presence of water ice at moon’s poles, up to a depth of a few meters, as well as help obtain a map-view of the mineral resources on the moon, at high special and spectral resolution.

"In an era of renewed interest for the Moon on a world-wide scale, the ESA-ISRO collaboration on Chandrayaan-1 is a new opportunity for Europe to expand its competence in lunar science while tightening the long-standing relationship with India – an ever stronger space power," said Prof. David Southwood, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.

Chandrayaan-1 has been spinning around the earth in an elliptical orbit at 267,000 km apogee (farthest from earth) and 465 km perigee (nearest to earth).India's first unmanned moon spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1 has entered the lunar transfer trajectory and reached apogee of 3,80,000 KM .Chandrayaan-1 is expected to be a stepping stone for the 2010 unmanned Chandrayaan-2 mission, a collaboration with Russia's space agency, which would include a lander and a rover.

ISRO has announced plans to send two astronauts for a week-long space flight by 2015 for which ISRO is establishing space lab for training of personnel near Bangalore, which would be followed by the country's first manned mission to the moon by 2020.

Now India has joined the elite club, kudos and congratulations to Indian scientists