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New Delhi Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that India hopes to send a spacecraft to the moon this year and called it 'an important milestone'. that India must reach soon.

Speaking from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort in Delhi on Friday as a part of the country's 61st Independence Day celebrations, the Prime Minister said,

"This year we hope to send an Indian spacecraft, Chandrayan, to the moon. It will be an important milestone in the development of our space programme," he said on the occasion of India's independence day.

"I want to see a modern India, imbued by a scientific temper, where the benefits of modern knowledge flow to all sections of society," he added.

Incidentally, India's national space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was carved out of another bigger organisation on August 15, 1969.

It was the dream and vision of Vikram Sarabhai and Homi Jehangir Bhabha, India's celebrated scientists.

In addition to domestic payloads, ISRO offers international launch services. .

On April 28 this year, ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) -C9 successfully launched one Indian Minis Satellite (IMS-1) and 8 foreign nano satellites from Sriharikota Space centre.

The launch was executed under a commercial contract among the University of Toronto, Canada; Cosmos International, Germany; and Antrix Corporation, ISRO’s marketing agency.

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