.jpg)
The final countdown for India's historic Mars mission kicked off at 6.08 am today.
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.
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.
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.
Days after landing on the Moon, India will aim for the Sun on Saturday with its maiden solar expedition, as ISRO's trusted PSLV will carry the Aditya L1 mission on a 125-day voyage to the Sun.
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.
'By pushing PSLV production to industry, the extra ISRO personnel available will be utilised to do projects like the human space mission.'
The mission has been extended by another six months due to surplus fuel
He said when India celebrates 75th year of Independence in 2022, "and if possible even before, an Indian son or daughter" will undertake a manned space mission on board 'Gaganyaan' "carrying the national flag".
Almost 20 days after it successfully entered the orbit of the Red Planet, ISRO's Mars Orbiter has sent pictures of Phobos -- the largest of the two natural satellites that orbit around Mars.
After sending missions to the Moon and Mars, ISRO is now readying a spacecraft to orbit Venus to study what lies below the surface of the hottest planet in the solar system and also unravel the mysteries under the sulfuric acid clouds enveloping it.
India will boldly go to Venus for the first time and re-visit the Red Planet very soon.
"The odds, were stacked against us. Of the 51 missions, attempted across the world so far, a mere 21 had succeeded. But we have prevailed. With today's spectacular success, ISRO joins an elite group of only 3 other agencies worldwide to have successfully reached red planet," Modi said.
Glimpses of SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft atop its powerful super heavy rocket is prepared for launch at the company's Boca Chica launchpad in Brownsville, Texas.
Somanath thanked all those who prayed for the mission's success, and ISRO veterans like A S Kiran Kumar , the space agency's former chief.
Congratulate ISRO and its brilliant scientists for positioning the country in an elite group of nations exploring outer space.
The Philae lander on Wednesday separated from the Rosetta orbiter and became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on a comet.
The six-wheeled solar-powered rover named Zhurong, resembling a blue butterfly and with a mass of 240 kg, slowly trundled off a ramp on the lander to hit the red, sandy soil of Mars, starting its journey to explore the fourth planet from the Sun.
A symbol of self-reliance, India's space endeavours are a model for public-private partnership.
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.
There were nervous moments...we knew we were taking a risk, but in the end we succeeded and I'm extremely happy, says S Arunan, project director, Mars Orbiter Mission in an interview with Rediff.com.
Indian Space and Research Organisation's Mars Orbiter Mission and American National Aeronautics and Space Administration's orbiter mission Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution or MAVEN will share data concerning the upper atmosphere of Mars.
'How will someone who has stood on Mars and looked at Earth, only a tiny blue dot in space, then see the idea of nations and religions and all of our divisions?' says Aakar Patel.
Indian Space Research Organisation on Tuesday paid tributes to iconic cartoonist R K Laxman by posting online his cartoon 'common man' reaching Mars, the last of his works, which he had sent to the space agency after the success of the historic Mars Mission.
"We have been able to detect NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in lunar orbit with ground-based radar," said Marina Brozovic, a radar scientist at JPL and principal investigator for the test project.
In his first interview, after the launch of MOM in Mars orbit, ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan spoke to T E Narasimhan about the mission and the way forward.
.jpg)
The final leg of putting India's Mangalyaan into the Martian orbit began early Wednesday morning.
Join us in honouring these brilliant scientists.
A quick recap of the Mars Orbiter Mission's major milestones on the way to Mars
India's ambitious space mission to explore planet Mars would be launched on November 5 from the spaceport of Sriharikota, ISRO announced on Tuesday.
On Sunday morning, in its mission to place an earth observation satellite and students satellite into the low earth orbit, the SSLV-D1/EOS-02 blasted off precisely at 9.18 am amid cloudy skies from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in this spaceport.
'InSight will study the interior of Mars and will teach us valuable science as we prepare to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars.'
So here we are, reproducing our own feature from some time back, which was created, now it may seem, in anticipation of the big event.
According to the European Space Agency, the unmanned spacecraft -- Schiaparelli -- exploded on impact with the Martian surface after falling from as high as 13,000 ft (4,000 m).
After Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the Moon, the Congress on Wednesday said it is a collective success of every Indian and ISRO's achievement reflects a saga of continuity and is truly fantastic.
All progress in space should excite us and encourage us to be optimists about a better future for our planet and all of us, asserts Aakar Patel.
NASA has released an image of a relatively fresh landslide on Mars that shows boulder-covered landslip along a canyon wall.
The US is currently Earth's most powerful country and a certain latitude of understanding -- a world view -- is popularly expected from its leadership. From a country identified with freedom, constitution, debate, democracy and the likes of Abraham Lincoln even as it had the most powerful military around, the US, following Trump's actions, seemed repositioned as militarily powerful with other qualities secondary, observes Shyam G Menon.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances