India Reaches Mars Orbit on Its First Attempt

On 24 September 2014, flight controllers at the Indian Space Research Organisation telemetry centre in Bengaluru received confirmation that the Mars Orbiter Mission probe had entered orbit around Mars. Unofficially known as Mangalyaan, the spacecraft made India the fourth entity to achieve a Martian orbital insertion, following the space programmes of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the European Space Agency. It also represented the first time an Asian nation reached orbit around Mars, achieved on the agency's initial attempt.

The concept originated shortly after the launch of the lunar probe Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, following a public statement by then-ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair and a formal feasibility study in 2010. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the project in August 2012. Engineers at the U. R. Rao Satellite Centre assembled the spacecraft in fifteen months by adapting an existing satellite bus structure. The mission carried five scientific instruments weighing fifteen kilograms, intended to evaluate atmospheric composition, surface mineralogy, and planetary morphology while demonstrating long-range navigation technologies.