India's first lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 started to cruise around the earth in its designated orbit on Wednesday morning, minutes after a copybook liftoff launched the country into the elite club that has sent missions to the moon.

The countdown has reached its advanced stage and India's maiden moon mission is all set to lift off as rains have stopped and weather is crystal clear.

As per a British newspaper, India's lunar mission could spark of a race for mineral wealth on the lunar surface.

India's maiden moon mission will carry two instruments from the American space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which will assess mineral resources and map the polar regions and look for ice deposits.

With the countdown starting at 5.22 a.m., about 1,000 scientists and technologists are working round-the-clock to send India's first spacecraft mission beyond earth orbit from the picturesque spaceport, located on an island about 80 km from Chennai.

While building India's first moon craft, Chandrayaan project director Mylswamy Annadurai was reminded of his engineering college days when he wrote lyrics to the tunes of his classmates.

The credit for generating interest about the moon among the school and college-goers goes to India's lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1 which is all set to be launched Oct 22 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

There are astrologers among the astronomers in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) too. They have declared that the day set for the country's first moon mission, Oct 22, will be aupicious.

When India's first lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 lifts off from Sriharikota, the telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) of the space agency in Bangalore will guide the mission on its 18-day voyage to the moon's polar orbit.

As scientists are gearing up for the maiden launch of India's unmanned Moon mission, former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Saturday said it would help the country economically as well as strategically.

India's first lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 was fitted to the launch pad for rehearsals late on Saturday night and it "went off well", a space agency official said on Sunday three days ahead of the final launch.