India’s Mission to Mars – Mangalyaan
India’s Mission to Mars began with the Mangalyaan, officially known as the “Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)” being successfully launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 05 November 2013, from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre – Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket.
The Mars Orbiter probe spent almost a month in a geocentric low-Earth orbit, making a series of seven altitude-raising orbits before its trans-Mars injection on 30 November 2013. After a 298 day journey, it was successfully inserted into Mars orbit on 24 September 2014.
It is India’s first interplanetary mission and with its successful placement in the Mars orbit, ISRO became only the 4th Space Agency to reach Mars after the Soviet Space Program, NASA and European Space Agency, but the 1st to succeed in its very first attempt. The total Mission cost was approximately $70 million, the cheapest inter-planetary Martian exploration mission ever undertaken.