The proven polar launching expertise of the Indian Space Research Organisation's facility at Sriharikota is preparing to become a difficult household word, as preparations continue to launch the first Indian lunar platform, Chandrayaan.
On board, as there will be on NASA's Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter & LCROSS, is a Russian neutron detector (LEND), for example, and both NASA and ESA, and Star City in Russia, are standing by to lend support for this third lunar polar orbiter launched within the past year. Countdown continues with a launch of Chandrayaan expected within the next few weeks. The vehicle is presently undergoing last-minute "real-space" testing and integration in Bangalore.
Kaguya, the Japanese (JAXA) "SELENE 1" orbiter will soon have been carrying out experiments in a stable, somewhat eccentric orbit since 2007. While what precisely their orbiter is capable of, having released only an occassional news release and only a single, briefly controverial photograph, the first Chinese lunar mission Chang'e Both orbiters are adding daily to the growing datasets still under analysis from Lunar Prospector and Clementine, and a continuum stretching back to the first orbiters and landers in the 1960's.
ESA reports on their preparation for Chandrayaan HERE.
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