DHAKA: Mission successful. India's Mars mission, Mangalyaan, has entered the red planet's orbit in a historic moment for the country's space programme.

Among an audience made up largely of excited scientists at the spacecraft control room of the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore was Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has been here since early morning to cheer the Mars Orbiter Mission or MOM and clapped his way to the rostrum, where he said with a big smile, "The moment this mission was named MOM, I knew it would not disappoint. Mom's never fail"

"History has been created today. We have achieved the near impossible. I congratulate all ISRO scientists and all my fellow Indians on this historic achievement," Modi said.

By placing its orbiter in the Mars orbit, India joins the U.S., the European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union in the elite club of Martian explorers. China and Japan have failed. India is the first country to achieve this on its first attempt.


 
Fast tracked by ISRO, Mangalyaan was made in just 15 months at a cost of Rs. 450 crore - the cheapest inter-planetary mission ever to be undertaken.

On his recent visit to India's rocket port in June, Modi had remarked, "The Hollywood movie Gravity cost more than our Mars mission - this is a great achievement".

The rocket that carried India's first unmanned satellite to Mars was as high as a 15-storey building and weighed nearly 320 tonnes - almost as much as 50 full-grown elephants, reports NDTV

The Mars Orbiter first made several revolutions around the Earth as it gathered enough velocity, and then it was shot onwards to Mars on its long journey. One after the other, four stages of the rocket had ignited, taking Mangalyaan higher into space.

Once in the Mars orbit, Mangalyaan will look for signs of life on the Red Planet, asking that big question: Are we alone in this universe?

BDST: 0910 HRS, SEP 05, 2014