EW DELHI — India launched its first unmanned spacecraft to orbit the moon early Wednesday, part of an effort to assert its power in space and claim some of the business opportunities there.

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Indian Space Research Organization, via Associated Press
In an undated photo, the Chandrayaan-1 was taken to the launching pad in Sriharikota.
The Indian mission is scheduled to last two years, prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect the lunar surface for natural resources, including uranium, a coveted fuel for nuclear power plants, according to the Indian Space Research Organization.

The spacecraft will not land on the moon, though it is supposed to send a small "impactor" probe to the surface.

The launching of Chandrayaan-1, as the vehicle is called — roughly translated as Moon Craft-1 — comes about a year after China's first moon mission.

Talk of a space race with China could not be contained, even as Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, was due to visit Beijing later in the week.

"China has gone earlier, but today we are trying to catch them, catch that gap, bridge the gap," Bhaskar Narayan, a director at the Indian space agency, was quoted by Reuters as having said.