Singh reaches Bangalore to witness success of Mars mission

Union Minister Jitendra Singh has reached Bangalore to witness the insertion of the spacecraft into the Martian orbit from ISRO's Telemetry Centre early tomorrow morning.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to remain present tomorrow.
"India will become the first Asian nation to reach Mars. It's a matter of pride that this will be the second landmark achievement of Department of Space after taking over of Narendra Modi government three months ago, the first one being the PSLV-23 launch of commercial satellites from Sriharikota on June 30," said Singh, who is also the Minister of State for Space.
He added the red plant inspires the human imagination like no other planet does because the conditions on Mars appear to be similar to planet Earth in many ways.

"For ages, human beings have speculated life on Mars. Mangalyaan inspires the vision of another human world in the Universe," he said.
Earlier, on telephone, Chairman Space Commission and Secretary Department of Space, K Radhakrishnan officially conveyed to Singh that the Mars Orbiter Satellite which has been on an arduous nine-month long journey to Red planet, cleared the crucial test yesterday, when the main rocket engine of the satellite was successfully test fired.
"All commands have been uploaded and the satellite will now perform the task automatically," Radhakrishnan said.
"Mangalyaan is laced with eight small rockets and one big rocket. After cruise for nearly nine months, the space craft is now ready for insertion into Mars Orbit," he added.