Mangalyaan
Mangalyaan (the Mars Orbiter Mission) — India's first interplanetary mission (2014), which made ISRO the first space agency to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt, at remarkably low cost.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- ISRO
- Launched
- November 5, 2013
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Current speed
- 24.9 km/s
- Distance from the Sun
- 1.52 AU
- Distance from Earth
- 1.99 AU
- Distance from Mars
- 0.139 AU
Mission
Mangalyaan — formally the Mars Orbiter Mission — made India the first nation to reach Mars on its very first attempt, and it did so for a fraction of the cost of any comparable mission. Where other Mars programmes had stumbled repeatedly before succeeding, ISRO arrived in orbit on its debut, in September 2014, joining a club previously limited to the United States, the Soviet Union and Europe — and becoming the first Asian nation to reach the planet. The mission was, in part, a demonstration: proof that India could design, launch and navigate a spacecraft across hundreds of millions of kilometres of interplanetary space. To save fuel, the modest orbiter was launched into Earth orbit first and then slingshotted toward Mars, gradually building up speed over weeks before the long cruise. Its total budget was famously low — around 74 million dollars, less than the cost of many films, and a small fraction of what comparable missions spend — a figure that became a worldwide symbol of frugal, ingenious engineering. From its elongated orbit, Mangalyaan carried a small suite of instruments that studied the Martian surface and atmosphere, tracked dust storms, and returned striking full-disc views of the planet that were widely shared. Designed to last six months, it operated for about eight years before losing contact in 2022. More than its science, Mangalyaan's legacy is what it represented: a developing nation reaching another planet on its first try, cheaply and capably, inspiring a generation and announcing India as a serious force in interplanetary exploration.
- 2013Launch toward MarsLaunch
ISRO's first interplanetary mission lifts off on a famously small budget.
- 2014Mars orbit on the first tryArrival
India becomes the first nation to reach Mars orbit on its debut attempt.
- 2015Imaging the red planetMilestone
Returns striking full-disc views and studies the atmosphere and dust storms.
- 2022Contact lostMission end
After ~8 years (designed for 6 months), the orbiter falls silent.
Images
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