India rejoiced on Saturday at joining an elite club by planting its flag on the moon as its space agency Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) released the first pictures of the cratered surface taken by its maiden lunar mission.

A lunar probe from India's first unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-1 has landed on the moon and started sending its first images, officials at the Indian Space Research Organisation said on Friday.

The Moon Impactor Probe detached itself from Chandrayaan-1 (moon vehicle) about 100 km from the moon's surface and crash-landed on the south pole of the moon at 1501 GMT, officials said in Bangalore.

ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair was naturally exultant at India having reached the Moon. 

At a press conference, Nair said, 'We are extremely pleased that the Chandrayaan-1 mission and India’s arrival and landing on the Moon has gone on without a single hitch.'

'The Moon was favourable to us. We have travelled all the way to the Moon. We have given Moon to India,' a relieved ISRO chief said.

'The mission was perfect at every stage. I attribute this to the fantastic commitment and hard work of the ISRO community,' he added.

Former president APJ Abdul Kalam, who first suggested the inclusion of Moon Impact Probe in the Chandrayaan mission, said the landing of the probe on the lunar surface proves India’s superior technology.

Kalam, a rocket scientist, put forward the idea during the International Lunar Exploration Working Group Conference at Udaipur in November 2004.

"After (the spacecraft) going so near the moon, I felt the mission will have more scientific relevance if the probe was included. I believe that the moon cannot be left to a few countries."

"I strongly felt that India cannot be left behind. So, I suggested the probe, and many in ISRO enthusiastically supported the plan."

Nair said the Chandrayaan-1 was a unique mission with unique instruments on board. “The performance of the instruments and their characteristics are higher than most in the world. I believe Chandrayaan-1 is a unique scientific research.”

In response to a question whether he would declare the mission successful, Nair said in lighter vein: “Nothing about the Moon exites me any more. We have to look at Mars.”

India launched Chandrayaan-1 on Oct 22, joining the Asian space race in the footsteps of rival China and reinforcing its claim to be considered a global power.

Chandrayaan-1, a cuboid spacecraft built by ISRO, is also seen as a boost for the country's ambitions to gain more global space business.

In April, India sent 10 satellites into orbit from a single rocket, and ISRO says it plans more launches before a proposed manned mission to space and then on to Mars in four years' time.