ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) successfully entered the Martian orbit on Wednesday.
India has become the first nation in the world to have entered the Mars orbit in the first attempt.
European, US and Russian probes have managed to orbit or land on the planet, but after several attempts.
The 3,000 pound Mars satellite cost $75 million and 18 months to build.
ISRO launched the satellite Mangalyaan (Hindi for “Mars craft”) in November of last year. The probe has spent the last 300 days journeying more than 420 million miles between Earth and the red planet at a speed of 13.7 miles per second.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Indians and ISRO scientists for the success, despite the constraint of resources.
Our budget is even lesser than a Hollywood blockbuster. These will go down as landmarks in history,” Modi added.
NASA’s most recent Mars probe, Maven space mission cost $671 million and the European Space Agency’s 2003 mission’s price was roughly $386 million.
India becomes only the fourth country or group of countries to reach the Red Planet, after the Soviet Union, United States and Europe.
