India Puts Spacecraft Into Mars Orbit

The PSLV-C25 launch vehicle, carrying the Mars Orbiter Mission probe as its payload, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota on November 5.

India's has successfully placed a satellite into orbit around Mars.

Scientists broke into wild cheers early on September 24 as the Mangalyaan orbiter's engines completed 24 minutes of burn time and maneuvered it into its designated place around the red planet.

The success of India's Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately nicknamed MOM, brings India into an elite club of Martian explorers that includes United States, the European Space Agency, and the former Soviet Union.

It traveled the nearly 700 million kilometers in around 300 days after its launch from Sriharikota, on the Bay of Bengal. It is expected to start sending images within hours of reaching Mars' orbit.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "history has been created today."

The mission's dedicated Twitter feed went into action once it reached its destination, announcing the orbiter's arrival with a quip:

India was particularly proud that the MOM was developed with homegrown technology and for a bargain price of about $75 million.

The Indian craft joins a U.S. spacecraft, NASA's "Maven" which arrived on September 22, in the Mars orbit.

The U.S. space agency tweeted a greeting:

Most of the more than 50 Mars missions attempted have failed.

Based on reporting by AP, "The Guardian," and Reuters