> Perfect lift-off for moon mission

Chandrayaan -1 blasts off on India's first mission to the moon. Photograph: Indian Space Research Organisation/AP.

India launched its first mission to the moon today, sending a satellite on a two-year flight to redraw maps of the lunar surface.

"Lift off is normal," mission control said as the Chandrayaan-1 blasted off from the Sriharikota space centre in southern India. Chandrayaan means "moon craft" in ancient Sanskrit.

Scientists, clapping and cheering, tracked the ascent on computer screens as they lost sight of the rocket in heavy cloud surrounding the launch pad.

"This is a historic moment for India," said the Indian Space Research Organisation chairman, G Madhavan Nair.

"We have started our journey to the moon and the first leg has gone perfectly well," he said, adding that they hoped the mission would "unravel the mystery of the moon".

Chief among the mission's goals is to map not only the surface of the moon, but what lies beneath. Scientists have better maps of Mars than the moon, where astronauts have walked. But India now hopes to change that.

The country plans to use the 1,400kg (3,080 pound) lunar probe to create a high-resolution map of the moon's surface and what minerals are below. Two of the mapping instruments are a joint project with the US space agency, Nasa.

If the mission is successful, India will join what is shaping up as a 21st century space race, with Chinese and Japanese spacecraft already in orbit around the moon.

The US, which won the 1960s race to send people to the moon, will not jump into the current race with its new lunar probe until next spring, but it is providing key mapping equipment for the Indian mission - Guardian.