India now has a spacecraft in orbit around Mars, too

[Buster's Uncle]

India now has a spacecraft in orbit around Mars, too
The Week
Peter Weber  1:29am ET



It must be getting a little crowded in the Martian atmosphere. Two days after the U.S. spacecraft MAVEN entered orbit around the Red Planet, India successfully followed suit early Wednesday with its first deep-space satellite, Mangalyaan, formally called the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). MOM's entry into orbit was flawless, Indian scientists in Bangalore said, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India has now "gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and innovation."

ISRO's Mars Orbiter        ✔   @MarsOrbiter 
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What is red, is a planet and is the focus of my orbit?

10:32 PM - 23 Sep 2014

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India's Martian mission places it in a rarified club — only the U.S., Russia, and Europe have successfully sent a spacecraft to Mars — and has a few other notable features: It was remarkably cheap, with a reported price tag of $74 million, and it makes India the first nation to reach Mars on its first attempt. NASA welcomed the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) into the club:

NASA        ✔   @NASA 
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We congratulate @ISRO for its Mars arrival! @MarsOrbiter joins the missions studying the Red Planet. #JourneyToMars pic.twitter.com/lz90flOZLG

10:47 PM - 23 Sep 2014

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MOM launched from India's Bay of Bengal last November.


http://theweek.com/article/index/268671/speedreads-india-now-has-a-spacecraft-in-orbit-around-mars-too