At 8:34 pm Indian time Friday night (1504 UTC), India became the fourth group to land its flag on the Moon. The unmanned lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 ejected its Moon Impact Probe, which hurtled across the surface of the Moon at 1.5 kilometres per second (3000 miles per hour), and successfully crash landed near the Moon's south pole. Besides carrying three important scientific instruments, the lunar probe also carried the image of the Indian national flag, painted on all sides.

India's first lunar mission, the Chandrayaan-1 (meaning 'moon craft' in Sanskrit), reached its destined lunar orbit on Wednesday. The satellite's on-board engine was fired for 58 seconds.

After two weeks of journey India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 entered the lunar orbit on Saturday (Nov. 08, 2008) evening. It started at 16:50 hrs IST and within 14 minutes, it the entered lunar orbit. It is now 504 km from Moon. ISRO says the most critical operation is successful. With this development, India's moon mission has been declared successful.

As India readies to launch its first unmanned lunar mission on 22nd October, space authorities are awaiting the green signal from the government for the country's maiden human space flight planned around 2015.

China's first lunar probe is operating normally and is on its planned trajectory more than one week after blasting off, a government agency said Thursday.

China is to launch its first lunar probe on Wednesday, just weeks after its rival, Japan , sent satellite into moon orbit. The wider window has been set for between Oct. 24 and Oct. 26, but the best time is about 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Li Guoping, a spokesman for the China National Space Administration, said Monday.

Chinese newspapers reported Tuesday that the country would launch its first lunar probe later that month. The Beijing Evening News said the Chang'e 1 orbiter would be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Oct. 24 at 6 p.m.

The most ambitious mission to study Earth's nearest neighbor since the U.S. Apollo project flourishes - Japan 's first lunar satellite successfully moved into orbit Friday.

Japan has successfully launched and put into Earth orbit its Selene lunar orbit explorer, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said Friday.

The space agency of Japan announced that it decided to delay the launch of its lunar space probe for a few days. The orbiter is to be launched later this week due to anticipated bad weather, an official said Tuesday.

Russia to send manned mission to the Moon by 2025 and to establish a permanent manned base on the moon's surface - space agency.

Japan's officials announced that first Japanese lunar orbiter was scheduled for launch on Aug. 16. Japan's space agency, JAXA, announced the much-delayed Selenological and Engineering Explorer - or SELENE - probe will be launched aboard an H-2A rocket, the mainstay of Japan's space program, from a space center on the remote southern Japan island of Tanegashima.