PM, President laud Isro for successful launch of Mangalyaan

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pranab Mukherjee, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday congratulated scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) after the successful launch of Mangalyaan (spacecraft for Mars).

“I congratulate you and your team for this historic achievement,” PM Singh told Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan over the phone from New Delhi. “The successful launch is the first step towards a successful mission and is testimony to Isro’s mastery of the launch vehicle technology,” he added.

Singh had announced India’s first mission to send spacecraft during his Independence Day speech of August 15, 2012.

On Wednesday afternoon, India’s most trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket launched the satellite into an elliptical arc around the Earth. From here, on the satellite’s thrusters, will begin a series of small fuel burns, moving into higher orbit before being slingshot towards Mars. It is expected to cover a complex journey of 300-days to reach the Mars orbit by September 2014. The Mars Orbiter Mission is carrying five solar equipment to study the weather of Mars, the amount of water it had and the presence of methane gas besides other things. The total cost of the project is Rs 450 crore.

If the journey is completed successfully, India would become fourth nation after the US, Russia and Europe to have reached Mars. China and Japan failed in their attempts to put their satellites into the Mars orbit.

President Pranab Mukherjee called it a significant milestone. “India’s first dedicated Mars Orbiter Spacecraft is a significant milestone in the progress of our space programme and space applications. This day shall go down as a landmark in our space programme, a day which will inspire our scientists to make even greater strides in achieving our national goals in the field of space,” he said in a message to Radhakrishnan .

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and BJP’s Modi also used the opportunity to praise the efforts of Isro scientists.