As most of India slept, on this rainy October morning and the sun had barely peeped out from behind the ominous cloud band, a 300-ton monster belching fire and thunder leapt up from the coast of the Bay of Bengal.

It was a new dawn for India, which showcased India's technological prowess at its best. India is coming out party one may suggest after having dismantled the nuclear shackles recently.

It was a dramatic moon rise for a country where over a billion hearts were beating in anticipation for the success of India's maiden mission to the moon. India's first-ever mission to the moon took off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDCS) at Sriharikota at 6.22 am on Wednesday, October 22. It was a spectacular, copy-book launch for Chandrayaan-1 and one that catapulted India into a small clutch of powerful, space-faring giants across the world. Calling it a historic moment achieved against tremendous odds, Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), said: "Today what we have charted is a remarkable journey for an Indian spacecraft to go to the moon and try to unravel the mysteries of the Earth's closest celestial body and its only natural satellite."

A remarkable journey has undoubtedly begun. Chandrayaan-1 was launched into a transfer orbit using the completely Indian rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C 11 (PSLV C11), and this became the 14th flight from SDSC for the workhorse PSLV, of which 13 have been consecutively successful launches - an enviable track record since rockets are notorious for failures.

The success of the launch finally allayed prior concerns about lightening that was occurring in the atmosphere due to rain and stormy weather, a fuel leak on the launch pad caused some heartburn.

Chandrayaan-1 is an Indian mission with international partners, with six scientific instruments from the US, the European Space Agency and Bulgaria and it stands out from all its other Asian counterparts in this major respect. There is a clear signal going out - international collaboration is certainly critical in the modern, global ethos.

This is the first time in the history of the half century old Indian space programme that an Indian space mission is attempting to move beyond the earth's orbit. Therefore, it is obvious that the journey has only begun, the Indian lunar baby has taken its first steps, adolescence will follow when it traverses the treacherous 400,000 kilometer distance and adulthood will come when the moon craft reaches its final destination moon. All steps Indian scientists are unfamiliar with and hence challenging.

Chandrayaan-1 is now in the earth's orbit and it will almost be a fortnight before it can free itself from the earth's gravitational pull and move closer to the moon.

The coming two years will be exciting when the work of Chandryaan-1 and its several complex payloads will take shape. Will the world end up better informed than it already is as regards the presence of water-ice on the moon, or will there be high quality topographical or mineralogical, or chemical maps of the moon's surface - all to be used to map resources on the moon? The first instrument - the radiation dose monitor from Bulgaria has already been switched on and data is flowing in.

This is a serious gear shift for the Indian programme from its earth bound people oriented objective, even if only its initiation. Moving from a thrust on applications to exploration of space at the cutting edge of planetary science has been a long and arduous journey for Indian space scientists; plans are afoot to send more missions to the moon, besides one to the sun, an asteroid, even Mars.

An impactor probe carrying the Indian flag will be sent to the moon's surface, making India only the fourth nation to place its national flag on the moon after Russia, USA and Japan. This is expected to happen within this year when the Moon Impactor Probe, with the Indian tricolor painted on it, will crash-land on the moon's surface.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said: When completed, the mission will put India in the very small group of 6 countries which have thus far sent space missions to the moon. Our scientific community has once again done the country proud and the entire nation salutes them." In fact, just recently, the government has approved a sequel Chandrayaan-2 that will cost Rs 425 crores and will have an Indian buggy that will run around on the moon.

India's love fest with deep space has only just begun. It could well become a force to reckon with giving the established space agencies a run for their money as the Indian moon mission is the cheapest till date of all moon missions in this century, but one also which creates a world record of carrying the largest suite of scientific instruments ever to be carried to the moon till date.