Ex ISRO chief hails Mangalyaan as Indian mission completes 7 years in orbit

Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) also known as Mangalyaan mission is completing seven years of orbiting the red planet.

MOM is the maiden interplanetary mission of ISRO. Launched on November 5, 2013, the probe was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt.

It made ISRO the fourth space agency to achieve such a feat after NASA, European Space Agency and Roscosmos.

"Indeed, a satisfying feeling," said K Radhakrishnan, who was the then Chairman of Indian Space Research Oranisation (ISRO) led the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) team.

The Indian Space Research Organisation was able to achieve the feat at a budget of ₹450 crores ($74 million) i.e. 1/7th the cost incurred by the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) in NASA.

ISRO has been continuously monitoring the spacecraft and its five scientific instruments, and officials said scientific analysis of the data being received from MOM spacecraft is in progress.

The purpose behind the mission was to explore the Martian atmosphere and its constituents such as the concentration of methane and carbon dioxide.

Another objective was to develop the technology required for operating interplanetary missions. MOM probe was also meant to study the Martian surface features, topography, mineralogy, effects of solar wind and radiation.