India's Mission to Mars sweeps social media platforms

India's maiden feat of placing its low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet in the first attempt today was a hot topic of discussion on social media platforms.
Social networking giant Facebook said the top post on both the ISRO and Mars Orbiter Mission Page reached over 1 million in the first 2 hours and received over 147,000 likes, comments and shares.
On the micro-blogging site Twitter, ISRO's Mars Orbitter twitter handel (@MarsOrbiter) gained more than 55,000 followers within hours.
India today created space history with the success of "Mangalyaan", as it became the first country to go to Mars in the very first try. European, American and Russian probes have managed to orbit or land on the planet, but after several attempts.

At USD 74 million (about Rs 450 crore), India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is the cheapest inter-planetary mission, costing a tenth of NASA's Mars mission Maven that entered the Martian orbit on September 22.
Facebook in a statement said: "As Mangalyaan attempted to drop into orbit around Mars, a great number of Facebook users eagerly followed ISRO's progress and celebrated the success online."

The Facebook page - ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission, has 454,541 likes and Page fans for the ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission Page increased from 337,000 on September 14, to nearly 454,000 on September 23, it added.
"Page fans for the ISRO Page increased from 130,000 fans on September 14 to 574,000 on September 23. The top post on both the ISRO and Mars Orbiter Mission Page reached over 1 million people in the first 2 hours and received over 147K likes, comments and shares," Facebook said.

Twitter said in a year full of nation-building moments, India celebrates another one, this time from space.
"@ISRO's Mars Mission @MarsOrbiter entered the Martian orbit this morning, and moments later, also made its Twitter debut. It sent its first Tweet at 8:14 AM, immediately after the mission was declared a success by @ISRO," it added.
Twitter further said: "@MarsOrbiter immediately became a runaway hit, gaining over 55,000 followers within hours. In a tone that was at once funny and conversational, the @MarsOrbiter exhibited personality & verve."
The micro-blogging site said the interaction between NASA and ISRO was retweeted more than 15,000 times.

"But it was this #OnlyOnTwitter exchange between @MarsCuriosity and @MarsOrbiter that was an interstellar hit with over 15,000 retweets between them!," it added.