--- title: India's Mars Mission: Mangalyaan Successful on Maiden Attempt description: India has become the first Asian country to put a spacecraft in Mars orbit and is the only country to do so on a first attempt. canonical: https://time.com/3423985/india-mars-orbiter-mission-mangalyaan-mom-modi-indian-space-research-organization-isro/ author: Rishi Iyengar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-24T06:27:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:22:37.486Z article:section: Science og:title: Indian Mars Mission Successful og:description: India becomes the first Asian country to put a craft in Mars orbit and the only country to do so on a first attempt. og:url: https://time.com/3423985/india-mars-orbiter-mission-mangalyaan-mom-modi-indian-space-research-organization-isro/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12127b19ced53a19/6986a503d0b6f22fca306432/india-mars-mission_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1738 og:image:height: 978 og:image:alt: India Mars Mission og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Indian Mars Mission Successful twitter:description: India becomes the first Asian country to put a craft in Mars orbit and the only country to do so on a first attempt. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12127b19ced53a19/6986a503d0b6f22fca306432/india-mars-mission_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # India Has Sent a Spacecraft Into Mars Orbit > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Sep 24, 2014 6:27 AM UTC  The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket lifts off carrying India's Mars spacecraft from the east-coast island of Sriharikota, India, Nov. 2013. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket lifts off carrying India's Mars spacecraft from the east-coast island of Sriharikota, India, Nov. 2013. Arun Sankar K—AP by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Sep 24, 2014 6:27 AM UTC Indian spacecraft Mangalyaan (also called the Mars Orbiter Mission or MOM) entered Mars orbit at approximately 10.30 p.m. E.T. on Tuesday, making India the first Asian country to accomplish the feat. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now the fourth space agency to have successfully completed a Mars mission — joining those of the U.S., Russia and Europe — and the South Asian nation is the only country to enjoy success on a maiden mission to Mars. Another superlative: Mangalyaan has set a record for the [cheapest ](http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/mangalyaan-the-cheapest-mars-mission-ever-596415)Mars mission, costing just $67 million. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier claimed that it was less expensive than the Oscar-winning film _Gravity_, Indian news channel _NDTV_ reported. In comparison, NASA’s MAVEN, which [entered](http://time.com/3416004/nasa-maven-mars-orbit-martian-atmosphere-volatile-evolution/) Mars’ orbit a day earlier, cost 10 times as much. ISRO announced the news of Mangalyaan with this tweet: > [](https://twitter.com/MarsOrbiter/status/514603320137097216) Modi was monitoring the mission’s progress at ISRO headquarters as the team behind Mangalyaan — which simply means “Mars craft” — broke into cheers. He commended the Indian scientists who worked on the mission. > [](https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/514605061914103808) > [](https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/514605141631057920) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3423985/india-mars-orbiter-mission-mangalyaan-mom-modi-indian-space-research-organization-isro/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3423985/india-mars-orbiter-mission-mangalyaan-mom-modi-indian-space-research-organization-isro/"},"headline":"India Has Sent a Spacecraft Into Mars Orbit","datePublished":"2014-09-24T06:27:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:22:37.486Z","description":"That makes it the first Asian country to achieve the feat and the only country to do so on a first attempt","url":"https://time.com/3423985/india-mars-orbiter-mission-mangalyaan-mom-modi-indian-space-research-organization-isro/","keywords":["space travel","India","Narendra Modi","orbit"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12127b19ced53a19/6986a503d0b6f22fca306432/india-mars-mission_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12127b19ced53a19/6986a503d0b6f22fca306432/india-mars-mission_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"India Mars Mission","caption":"The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket lifts off carrying India's Mars spacecraft from the east-coast island of Sriharikota, India, Nov. 2013.","creditText":"Arun Sankar K—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space-travel/","name":"space travel"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3423985/india-mars-orbiter-mission-mangalyaan-mom-modi-indian-space-research-organization-isro/","name":"India Has Sent a Spacecraft Into Mars Orbit"}}]}] ```