Chandrayan: ''Big achievement for India":Kalam

Kochi, Nov 8 (UNI) Former President APJ Abdul Kalam today said the placing of 'Chandrayan-1' spacecraft in the lunar orbit was a ''big achievement'' for India.

Addressing a function here, Dr Kalam said the Indian space scientists had been able to put 'Chandrayan' in an orbit around the moon at around 1700 hrs. today.

''This is a big achievement for the space scientists and for India,'' he added.

The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft entered the lunar orbit following the 817-second manoeuvre conducted by the scientists from ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Peenya in Bangalore city.

The exercise marked a historic event for the country as this was the first time that an Indian built spacecraft had broken away from the earth's gravitational field and reached the moon.

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