Mangalyaan Slips into Mars Orbit .... Proud Moment for India

A very happy day – all Indians should be celebrating as India created history today,  becoming the first country in the world to succeed on its first Mars mission when Isro's Mangalyaan slipped into Martian orbit after a few nail-biting moments.  The country joined the United States, European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union in the elite club of Martian explorers with the Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately called MOM. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had achieved the "near impossible". Speaking at the mission control center in the southern city of Bangalore he said: "The odds were stacked against us. Of 51 missions attempted in world only 21 have succeeded. We have prevailed." The Happy News is that India has successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars, becoming the fourth country to do so. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second smallest planet in the Solar System, after Mercury. Named after the Roman god of war, it is often described as the "Red Planet" because the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it areddish appearance. A proud ISRO reveals that : Spacecraft Successfully enters Martian Orbit; Burn Start of Main Liquid Engine Confirmed; The radio link between the Spacecraft and Earth is now blocked by Mars; Eclipse starts - The Spacecraft is in shadow of Mars……….. The Mangalyaan robotic probe will soon begin work studying the Red Planet's atmosphere. After a 10-month journey, India's Mars Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyaan, is scheduled to make some final complicated manoeuvres before entering the Red Planet's orbit after 7:30 am (0200 GMT). The Mars Orbiter Mission informally called Mangalyaan was  launched into Earth orbit on 5 November 2013 by ISRO.  It was successfully inserted into orbit of Mars today - 24 September 2014 making India the only country in the world to enter the orbit in first attempt. The Mars Orbiter Mission probe lifted-off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR,Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket C25 on 5 November 2013. Now with the successful entry into Mars, it becomes India's first interplanetary mission and ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after theSoviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency. Two weeks before Mangalyaan was lauched, NASA sent off its own Mars mission named Maven. Its cost: Over Rs 4,000 crore. India's mars mission, is worth just a fraction of that -- Rs 450 crore -- and was executed in just 15 months after the government approved it in August 2012.   India’s Mars mission represents a technological leap for the South Asian nation, pushing it ahead of space rivals China and Japan in the field of interplanetary exploration.  India now has the distinction of becoming the only country to reach the orbit of Mars in its first attempt. More than half the missions to Mars have failed, either crashing or going off course. China’s Mars mission of 2011 was among the failures. Happy Day, Feeling  Proud as an Indian With regards – S. Sampathkumar
24^th Sept. 2014.