Mars Mission success: PM Modi, President Mukherjee congratulate ISRO scientists

Preisdent Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientists on Wednesday for successfully going through with the orbit insertion manouvre of the 'Mangalyaan'.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi closely watched the progress of the Mangalyaan from the ISRO headquarters in Bangalore.

After the success of the mission, Prime Minister Modi said, "The short form of this Mars mission is MOM, and as soon as I heard this I knew MOM never disappoints."

"I congratulate the people of nation as India has successfully reached Mars. History has been created as we have dared to reach out to the unknown. By travelling more than 650 million kilometers, we have gone beyond the boundaries of human imagination," he added.

"None of the nations have been successful in their maiden attempts, India is the only country which has been successful in its very first attempt. I told the scientists not to worry about failure, as if we had failed, it would have been my responsibility," said Prime Minister Modi.

"The success of our space programme symbolizes what we are capable of. Let us set ourselves for even more challenging goals and try even harder to achieve them," he concluded.

President Mukherjee congratulated Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, the chairman of ISRO, saying, "I extend my hearty congratulations and best wishes to you and your team on the successful orbit insertion Manouvre of the Mars Orbiter Mission 'Mangalyaan' after a journey of nearly nine months."

"The nation is proud of this historic achievement which has demonstrated, yet again, India's space capabilities. I am sure that this breakthrough, which marks a significant landmark in our space programme, will inspire our scientists to make even greater strides," he added.

The insertion operation of the spacecraft was performed at the scheduled time 7.17.32 this morning and lasted for the prescribed 24 minutes.

On Monday, ISRO scientists successfully test-fired the mission's main engine.

Given the high rate of failures, only 21 out of 51 missions sent to Mars by various countries have been successful, and the success of India's Mars orbiter Mission in the very first shot will boost her global standing in space.

Mangalyaan is primarily a technological mission and has been configured to carry out observation of physical features and the atmosphere of Mars.

The Mars Orbiter Mission affectionately called "MOM" was India's first inter-planetary mission launched on November 5, 2013 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Mangalyaan has been on a 300-day marathon covering over 670 million kilometers.