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India Mars satellite Mangalyaan successfully enters orbit | India Mars satellite Mangalyaan successfully enters orbit |
(35 minutes later) | |
India has successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars on its first attempt. | |
The Mangalyaan robotic probe arrived in orbit early on Wednesday following a 10-month journey from Earth. | |
A 24-minute engine burn slowed the probe down enough to allow it to be captured by Mars' gravity. | A 24-minute engine burn slowed the probe down enough to allow it to be captured by Mars' gravity. |
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was at the mission control centre in the southern city of Bangalore, said India had achieved the "near impossible". | |
"The odds were stacked against us. Of 51 missions attempted in world only 21 have succeeded. We have prevailed," he said. | |
Only the US, Europe and Russia have previously sent missions to Mars. The latest US satellite, Maven, arrived at Mars on Monday. | |
US space agency Nasa congratulated its Indian counterpart on Wednesday's success. | |
"We congratulate @ISRO for its Mars arrival! @MarsOrbiter joins the missions studying the Red Planet," the agency tweeted. | |
The total cost of the Indian mission has been put at 4.5bn rupees ($74m; £45m), which makes it one of the cheapest interplanetary space missions ever. | |
The Mangalyaan probe will now set about taking pictures of the planet and studying its atmosphere. | |
One key goal is to try to detect methane in the Martian air, which could be an indicator of biological activity at, or more likely just below, the surface. | |
Mangalyaan - more formally referred to as Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) - was launched from the Sriharikota spaceport on the coast of the Bay of Bengal on 5 November 2013. |