India's Mars Orbiter departs from earth

India's maiden spacecraft to Mars left earth early Sunday to enter into the sun's orbit on way to the red planet through the inter-planetary system.

"The Orbiter departed from earth at 12:49 a.m. to enter the solar orbit after 23 minutes for its 680-million km voyage over nine months to reach Mars in Sep 2014," a senior space agency official told IANS.