India’s first Mars satellite enters orbit around red planet

A $74 million (€57.4 million) Indian spacecraft entered orbit around Mars after an almost yearlong voyage today, and for 11 percent the cost of the latest US Maven probe.

Mangalyaan, or "Mars craft" in Hindi, made orbit today after a trip of about 661 million km , the Indian Space Research Organisation said.

The satellite is India’s first Mars mission and reached the red planet two days after Nasa’s $671 million Maven craft.

"History has been created today," Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said in a speech today at the ISRO's office in Bengaluru. "We have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near impossible."

India joins the US, Europe and Russia in orbiting Mars, giving Mr Modi an opportunity to promote the country's technological capabilities and lower costs to woo foreign investment.

The nation is trying to keep up with China, which plans to complete a manned space station by 2022.

India’s 4.5 billion rupee (€57.4 million) mission seeks to map the Martian surface, study the atmosphere and search for methane gas, a sign that the planet can support life, according to the space agency.

India's space program is the first to enter the Mars orbit in its first attempt, president Pranab Mukherjee said in a statement.

Mangalyaan, also known as the Mars Orbiter Mission, is expected to orbit Mars for six months and send data back to Earth until its fuel supplies are exhausted.

Nasa has said that Maven will study the red planet's upper atmosphere. Nasa data shows about half the more than three dozen missions to Mars over the last five decades have failed, including Chinese and Japanese attempts.

“We congratulate ISRO for its Mars arrival! Mars Orbiter joins the missions studying the Red Planet,” Nasa said in a Twitter post today.

Mr Modi hailed India’s space program in June after witnessing the launch of a rocket carrying five foreign satellites, adding that the domestic industry is the world’s most cost-effective. India used a smaller rocket and payload to reduce costs, Mr Modi said today.

“This mission costs less than it takes to make a Hollywood movie,” he added. “These are the achievements that will go down as landmarks in history.”

Bloomberg