India's space programme has received a boost after it successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars. Scientists at mission control erupted into cheers as the spacecraft began orbiting the red planet.
The Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately nicknamed MOM, sees India join the US, the European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union in the elite club of Martian explorers. MOM was launched from the Bay of Bengal in November 2013 and is expected to circle the red planet for at least six months on an elliptical path that will see it get within 365km of the surface at its closest point.
The success of the Mars Orbiter Mission, lauded for its low price tag of $74m (£45m), will boost India's five-decade-old space programme that newly-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to expand with better technology. And its arrival led to a humorous exchange on Twitter between the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Mars Orbiter and Nasa's 2012 mission Curiosity. Curiosity welcomed it on the red planet with a 'Namaste' - a customary greeting of South Asia. Curiosity Rover tweeted: "Namaste, @MarsOrbiter! Congratulations to @ISRO and India's first interplanetary mission upon achieving Mars orbit (sic)," Curiosity Rover tweeted.
INC News, 24/09/2014
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