A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (launch vehicle) launched the 590-kg (1,300-pound) Chandrayaan-1 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island, Andhra Pradesh state. The probe then was boosted into an elliptical polar orbit around the Moon, 504 km (312 miles) high at its closest to the lunar surface and 7,502 km (4,651 miles) at its farthest. After checkout, it descended to a 100-km (60-mile) orbit for two years of operations. On Nov. 14, 2008, Chandrayaan-1 launched a small probe that was designed to land on the Moon's surface and study the thin lunar atmosphere, but the probe did not survive the landing.

The principal instruments from ISRO—the Terrain Mapping Camera, the HyperSpectral Imager, and the Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument—will produce images of the lunar surface with high spectral and spatial resolution, including stereo images with a 5-metre (16-foot) resolution and global topographic maps with a resolution of 10 metres (33 feet). The Chandrayaan Imaging X-ray Spectrometer, developed by ISRO and the European Space Agency (ESA), will detect magnesium, aluminum, silicon, calcium, titanium, and iron by the X-rays they emit when exposed to solar flares (solar flare). This will be done in part with the Solar X-ray Monitor, which measures incoming solar radiation.

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration is contributing two instruments, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M³) and the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR), which will seek ice at the poles. Mini-SAR will broadcast polarized radio waves at the north and south polar regions. Changes in the polarization of the echo will measure the dielectric constant and porosity, which are related to the presence of water ice. M³ will study the lunar surface in wavelengths from the visible to the infrared to isolate signatures of different minerals on the surface. ESA has two other planned experiments, an infrared spectrometer and a solar wind monitor. The Bulgarian Aerospace Agency will provide a radiation monitor.

A Chandrayaan-2 mission with a small surface rover is planned for 2011.