Indian spacecraft found water on moon in 2009

Sagar Kulkarni
New Delhi, Jan 1 (PTI) Indian science witnessed its
crowning moment in 2009 when its maiden lunar mission
Chandrayaan-I revealed to the world the existence of water on
moon and nuclear scientists designed a new atomic reactor that
uses little uranium per unit of energy.
Tamil Nadu-born and Baroda-educated Venkataraman
Ramakrishnan brought cheers as he shared the Nobel Prize for
Chemistry this year.
The scientific establishment had its share of
controversies as the government's ambitious scheme to woo
Indian scientists back to their country got off to a false
start. Another scientist had to forfeit his prized scholarship
following allegations of scientific misconduct.
The year also saw a change in guard in two key
institutions -- the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
While Anil Kakodkar bid farewell to the Department of
Atomic Energy after an illustrious 45-year stint, G Madhavan
Nair retired as ISRO chairman after 42 years in the space
agency. Sri Kumar Banjerjee and K Radhakrishnan succeeded
them.
ISRO's maiden moon mission Chandrayaan-I made headlines
the world over when it announced late September that an
American instrument onboard had detected presence of large
quantities of water on moon's surface. MORE PTI