Exactly at 08:00:04 am Wednesday, India created history by successfully inserting Mangalyaan into the Mars orbit.
This achievement on its first attempt and at a cost less than what it takes to make a Hollywood movie brought accolades to the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The country’s space agency successfully completed the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) manoeuvre and with this, it joins the elite set of the US, Europe and Russia in successfully sending probes to orbit or land on Mars.
India becomes the first Asian country to go to the Red Planet, beating even China.
A visibly excited Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attired perhaps symbolically in red, saw the entire manoeuvre and termed the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) an ‘unprecedented success’.
“We have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near impossible. Today, MOM has met Mangal (Mars). Today, Mangal has got MOM. The time this mission was short-named as MOM, I was sure that MOM won’t disappoint us,” said Modi in his 20-minute address in English and Hindi to ISRO scientists.
Talking about the challenge that this mission posed, as of the previous 51 attempted across the world so far only 21 had succeeded, he said, “the odds were stacked against us.”
Congratulating the gathering of 1,000 scientists who have been involved in this mission from Day 1, Modi, who is also the Minister of Space, showed his special appreciation for the ISRO Chairman, K Radhakrishnan, with a pat on his back.
The first sign of success on the very last leg came when ISRO announced that at the end of four hours, the burning of engines on India’s Mars orbiter had been confirmed.
“All engines of Mars orbiter are going strong. Burn confirmed,” ISRO said, which was met with spontaneous clapping from scientists and other ISRO personnel gathered.
For the next six months, the MOM will move in an elliptical path around the planet studying the Mars surface and scanning its atmosphere for methane. It will not land on Mars.
10-month odysseyThe spacecraft, launched on November 5, 2013 through a PSLV-XL rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, has travelled 666 million km (414 million miles) since.
The scientific objectives include exploration of Mars surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere by indigenous scientific instruments.