· It costs Rs 3.86 bn ($79 mn), has a take-off weight of more than 1.3 tonnes, and has been sent on a two-year mission to orbit the moon.
· India is the third Asian country to send an unmanned mission into the lunar orbit. Chandrayaan-1 is much cheaper than spacecrafts launched by India's Asian rivals.
· The rocket carried 11 payloads -- five from India, two from the USA, and one each from Germany, Britain, Sweden and Bulgaria.
· About 1,000 scientists worked on the project for four years.
· At least 16 Indian satellites currently orbit the earth, supporting telecommunications, TV broadcasting, earth observation, weather forecasting, remote education and healthcare.
· India started its space programme in 1963, developing its own satellites and launch vehicles to reduce dependence on overseas agencies. India's constellation of seven earth-observation satellites is the largest in the world.
· In 1959, the sphere-shaped Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 became the first spacecraft to orbit the moon.