Congratulations! ISRO's Mangalyaan Brings Glory For India, Successfully Enters Martian Orbit

India's much-awaited Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), which was launched on Nov 5, 2013 from Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota, has successfully entered the Red Planet’s orbit on Wednesday.

At 7:10 am (IST), state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed the forward rotation of the MOM, bring it closer to Mars. When the clock struck 7:25 am, Mangalyaan, the orbiter weighing 475 kg, was completely behind the Red Planet. Then arrived the much talked-about moment, the main engine of the Mars orbiter was fired 24 minutes from Mars to enter the Martian orbit, which will be about 500 km from its surface and 215 million km away from the Earth in radio distance.

After Mangalyaan entered the Mars orbit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present at the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network, said, “History has been created today. We have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near impossible."

The Prime Minister congratulated Indians and ISRO scientists for the success, adding that the success of India's mission to Mars "will go down as landmark in history.”

With the help of five scientific instruments on board, the Rs 450-crore Mangalyaan will study the Martian surface, its mineral composition and scan its atmosphere for methane gas.

ISRO has now become the fourth international space agency after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US, Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) and European Space Agency to undertake a mission to Mars.


Not to forget, India made history by becoming the first country in the world to enter the Martian orbit in its maiden attempt and this ends the much-anticipated rendezvous of Mangalyaan with the Red Planet.

Image: ISRO