--- 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # India Has Sent a Spacecraft Into Mars Orbit 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"}}]}] ```