ISRO Chairman V Narayanan announces ambitious space program goals, including landing Indians on the Moon by 2040 and launching the 'Gaganyaan' mission in 2027. The agency is also working on a national space station and uncrewed missions.
'You can observe a lot of things from space.' 'Another thing is communication, in real time, especially in war-like situations.' 'During Operation Sindoor, we could play our part well.'
The spacecraft is expected to reach Mars orbit in about 200 days from now and then begin its mission to study the Red Planet's atmosphere.
India's Mars mission is on track and space scientists are testing the payloads before they are integrated with the satellite.
India's ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission will send a spacecraft hurtling into space on a 400-million-kilometre journey that will last a year. The blast off is on Tuesday afternoon.
India's successful launch of its Mars mission has been described by the mainstream American media as "technological leap" and "a symbolic coup" against China in this field.
The ISRO team worked tirelessly to make the Mars mission a success
While the Mars mission got wide praise, there were voices which questioned the need for spending Rs 450-500 crore on it when the country is facing hunger and poverty.
NASA's Deep Space Networks will help India to track the Mars orbiter's journey, and will also help to track it when it will go around Mars, reports Ritu Jha from California.
Here's a breakdown of how the series of events unfolded at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota
There is a lot of buzz at Sriharikota where the Indian Space Research Organisation prepares to launch the ambitious Rs 450 crore Mars mission called the Mangalyan.
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India's maiden mission to Mars has traversed beyond the sphere of influence of Earth extending about 9,25,000 km in its 10-month long voyage to the red planet.
Dr Singh called up ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan to congratulate him and his team of scientists and extended best wishes for its successful future.
"We started it by 1.17 am and have successfully completed the first orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft. Right now, the computation is going on," an ISRO spokesman told PTI.
India is all set to give the go-ahead for an ambitious mission to Mars, expected in November next year, a top Space Department official said on Saturday. "A lot of studies have been done on the possible mission to Mars," Secretary in the Department of Space and Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation K Radhakrishnan said.
The Mars mission is overwhelmingly irrelevant to space science and won't advance the frontiers of knowledge. It will divert attention from the real technological challenges facing the Indian space programme, and will further distort our science and technology priorities, says Praful Bidwai.
The second orbit raising manoeuvre of India's Mars Orbiter spacecraft was performed in the early hours of Friday, three days after its successful launch by PSLV C-25 into orbit around the Earth.
The Chinese Mars probe named Tianwen 1, or Quest for Heavenly Truth 1, will fulfil three scientific objectives: orbiting the red planet for comprehensive observation, landing on Martian soil and sending a rover to roam the landing site.
With the Indian Space Research Organisation set to launch the Mars Mission on November 5, Chairman K Radhakrishnan, in an interview with Praveen Bose, talks about the complexities, the challenges and the benefits of the Rs 450-crore mission.
"Since its injection into Earth's orbit yesterday, it has been functioning smoothly on the orbit. We are planning to perform orbit raising manoeuvres in the early hours of of Thursday," an Indian Space Research Organisation spokesman told PTI over phone.
Rediff.com takes a look at spacecraft that have successfully made it to Mars.
India's Mars Orbiter Mission is slated to be launched on October 28 after a national committee of experts gave the go ahead for the Rs 450 crore ambitious venture after threadbare deliberations.
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The final countdown for India's historic Mars mission kicked off at 6.08 am today.
As India prepares to launch its Rs 450 crore mission to Mars this year, a top space official says the country's first martian odyssey -- that has attracted some criticism -- is not just for pride but for undertaking "meaningful research".
It has already tasted success with the moon mission and Mangalyaan. Is man in space the next frontier for ISRO?
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The final leg of putting India's Mangalyaan into the Martian orbit began early Wednesday morning.
The ISRO is looking at Mangalyaan-2, a follow-on mission to Mars, and launching two satellites that would look at Venus and explore asteroids.
The Indian Space Research Organisation is on Tuesday scripting history, as its Rs 450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission takes off from Sriharikota spaceport for a 780 million-kilometre journey to the Red Planet.
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The 56 and-a-half hour countdown for the launch of India's first space mission to Mars, slated for November 5, commenced on Sunday at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
India will send a spaceship to Mars to collect important scientific information about the Red Planet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced on Wednesday.
Indian Space Research Organisation has successfully realigned the orbit of its Mars Orbiter Mission 'Mangalyaan' so it is not affected by long-duration eclipse, ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said.
In a major boost to the Indian scientific community, the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan), on its maiden tryst with the red planet, has completed 300 days of its journey in space and is just 23 days away from reaching its intended orbit.
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is among the most-tracked satellites in the world, according to N2YO, which provides a web-based real-time satellite mapping website.
The launch of India's Mars Orbiter Mission has been delayed by almost a week and a decision on the new date would be taken on October 22, the Indian Space Research Organisation said on Saturday. The launch window for the MOM mission was earlier slated from October 28 to November 19 and a decision on the launch date was to be taken on Saturday.
The Indian Space Research Organisation on Saturday said the country's October 28 Mars Orbiter Mission was on schedule, dismissing suggestions that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration may not be in a position to offer it deep space network support following the government shutdown in the United States.
Indian Space research Organisation Chairman G Madavan Nair said on Monday that India would launch a mission to Mars by 2013.Earlier, on August 13, the government sanctioned seed money of Rs 10 crore for the Mars project, to carry out various studies on the experiments to be conducted, the route of the mission and other related details necessary to scale the new frontier.The ISRO has begun the preparations for sending a spacecraft to Mars.
Indian Space research Organisation Chairman G Madavan Nair said on Monday that India would launch a mission to Mars by 2013.Earlier, on August 13, the government sanctioned seed money of Rs 10 crore for the Mars project, to carry out various studies on the experiments to be conducted, the route of the mission and other related details necessary to scale the new frontier.The ISRO has begun the preparations for sending a spacecraft to Mars.
British lawmakers are angry with the David Cameron-led government despite it making it clear that their aid is not used to fund India's space programme but is earmarked for specific purposes like tackling child malnutrition, providing malaria bed nets and secondary education for poor girls. British Members of Parliament raised a hue and cry after India unveiled plans to launch a mission to Mars while receiving 280 million pounds a year in aid from Britain.
A day after suffering a glitch during the fourth orbit raising operation on its Mars Orbiter Mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation on Tuesday successfully completed the supplementary manoeuvre, raising the spacecraft's apogee (farthest distance from Earth) to over 1,18,000 km.
Following are some interesting facts about the 1,350-kg 'Mangalyaan' mission and its launch
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