2019-09-27 Fri

India created history 5 years ago on 24th September 2014, when its Mars Orbiter Mission was successfully put into Martian Orbit! India became the fourth nation to reach Mars and the first ever to do so on its first attempt.

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) probe lifted-off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (Sriharikota), using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket C25 on 5 November 2013. After a 298-day transit and over 200 million kilometres to Mars, it was inserted into Martian orbit on 24 September 2014.

Mangalyaan is credited and praised all over of the world with many laurels. It is cost-effective, had a short period of realization, economical weight-budget, miniaturization of five heterogeneous science payloads etc. MOM is the only Martian artificial satellite which could image the full disc of Mars in one view frame and also image the far side of Deimos. Originally designed for a mission life of just 6 months (180 days), the MOM is still in the Martian orbit and continues to work successfully! Indeed our Mangalyaan has lots of feathers in its cap.

The new INR 2000 note that was released post demonetisation features Motif of Mangalyan - reflecting country's first venture in the interplanetary space.

Image Courtesy: RBI